Estimates of genetic variability and association studies in quantitative plant traits of Eruca spp. Landraces

Despite the increasing of economical importance of rocket plant limited information is available on genetic variability for the agronomic traits among Eruca spp. Hence, heritability and association studies of plant properties are necessities for a successful further rocket breeding programme. The objective of this study was to examine phenotypic and genotypic variability, broad sense heritability, genetic advance, genotypic and phenotypic correlation and mean for agronomic traits of rocket plant. The magnitude of phenotypic coefficient of variation values for all the traits were higher than the corresponding values and broad sense heritability estimates exceeded 65% for all traits. Phenotypic coefficients of variability (PCV) ranged from 7.60 to 34.34% and genotypic coefficients of variability (GCV) ranged between 5.58% for petiole thickness and 34.30% for plant weight. The results stated that plant weight, siliqua width, seed per siliqua and seed weight could be useful character for improved Eruca spp. breeding programme