International Journal of Horticultural Science and Technology

International Journal of Horticultural Science and Technology

Study of Half-Sib Families of Ajowan (Carum copticum L.) Provides New Insights into the Heritability of Some Important Traits

Document Type : Research paper

Authors
Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding Sciences, Aburaihan Campus, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
We selected ten Ajowan parents (Carum copticum L.) from a genetically diverse population to evaluate gene effects, heritability, and correlations among their morphological traits. We poly-crossed the parents to produce half-sib genotypes. The evaluations comprised the number of days to flowering, plant height, number of fertile branches, number of umbrellas per plant, number of seeds per umbel, seed yield per plant, harvest index, essential oil percentage, and essential oil yield. Parents and polycross progeny seeds grew in a randomized complete block design with three replications at the University of Tehran, 2015-2017. The results showed broad-sense heritability ranged from 0.64 to 0.96 in parents and their progenies. Narrow-sense heritability appeared through the regression of progenies on the parents (h2po) and via progeny analysis (h2n), suggesting that additive genes control these traits. The correlation of seed yield with plant height, number of fertile branches, number of umbrellas per plant, and number of seeds per umbel were positive and significant. The results indicated a significant negative correlation between thymol and γ- terpinene in parents and half-sib families. We reported wide variations and high heritability for most of the evaluated traits in the ajowan populations that can improve seed and essential oil yields. 
Keywords

Volume 11, Issue 2
Spring 2024
Pages 163-174

  • Receive Date 31 October 2022
  • Revise Date 06 May 2023
  • Accept Date 04 July 2023