ASSESSMENT OF GENETIC VARIABILITY FOR YIELD ENHANCING PARAMETERS IN GINGER (ZINGIBER OFFICINALE) GENOTYPES.

Abstract

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) being a member of Zingiberaceae family is cultivated as a herb and spice crop. The present research experiment, comprising of 8 ginger genotypes of diverse origin, was conducted in semi controlled tunnel conditions under RCBD with three replications in research area of Vegetable Research Institute, AARI, Faisalabad, Pakistan. The data was recorded for plant height, leaf length, leaf width, number of leaves per plant, number of tillers per plant, tiller thickness, rhizome weight per plant, rhizome length, rhizome width, rhizome thickness, inter nodal distance of leaves and total yield per hectare. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed highly significant variability for all the traits and portrayed VGC-20008 as a best ginger genotype to be utilized for further ginger improvement programme on account of high mean values for number of leaves per plant, leaf length, rhizome weight per plant, rhizome thickness, inter nodal distance of leaves and total yield per hectare. Most of the traits exhibited highly significant (at 1%) correlation with total yield per hectare on both genotypic and phenotypic level. Path coefficient analysis revealed positive and direct effects on rhizome yield per hectare for various plant attributes. The magnitude of phenotypic coefficient of variance was higher than the genotypic coefficient of variance for all the plant characters and maximum phenotypic variance (16332.9) was found in rhizome weight per plant. All the traits exhibited more than 90% broad sense heritability and number of leaves per plant showed higher value of 99.90% heritability. Genetic advance estimation revealed highest genetic advance (144%) for total yield per hectare which exhibited additive type gene action for its expression. A principal component Bi-plot explained 85% variability through PC-1 and PC-2 and expounded VGC-20008 a superior ginger genotype for its maximum variability towards different traits such as rhizome width, number of leaves per plant, rhizome length, rhizome weight per plant and rhizome thickness. The molecular analysis through utilization of 13 SSR markers also expressed the genetic diversity among ginger genotypes. The dendrogram presented highest similarity coefficient (0.88) for VGB-17000 and VGC-20008 indicating closed genetic relationship among these genotypes. Thus the morphological and molecular assessment of genetic variability among ginger genotypes would be further utilized in future for genetic improvement of ginger germplasm and evolution of high yielding varieties