Abstract

                                The present study was carried out using 189 pre-breeding lines from thecross VBN (Bg) 5 and Vigna mungo var silvestris 22/10 to study the geneticvariability for nine yields and six seed traits. Significant variability wasobserved for all the traits studied. The phenotypic coefficient of variation(PCV) was higher than the genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all the15 traits. High PCV was observed for number of pods per plant, seed volume,and single plant yield. The moderate to high GCV was exhibited for hundredseed weight, plant height, number of pods per plant, seed volume, andsingle plant yield. The heritability estimates were high for pod length, plantheight, seed length, hundred seed weight, single plant yield, bulk density,seed length-width ratio and seed width. The traits viz., plant height, hundredseed weight, and single plant yield showed high heritability along with highgenetic advance as per cent of mean respectively, which might be due toadditive gene action. Hence, these traits could act as a better source forthe breeding programme for evolving high-yielding bold seeded varieties.

Key words : Blackgram; Pre-breeding lines; Yield- seed traits; Genetic variability