Inheritance studies in intraspecific crosses of cotton

The experiment was conducted of for assessing the heritability and other genetic parameters of live commercial cotton varieties NIAB-78, Shahbaz, CIM-109, Mc-Niar-3150 and Reshmi along with F5 population. The genotypes are significantly different at 0.01 level for plant height, number of sympodial branches per plant, number of monopodial branches per plant, boll weight, lint index, ginning outturn percentage and seed cotton yield and 0.05 for number of- bolls per plant and seed index. The highest seed cotton yield displayed by NIAB-78 x Shahbaz followed by Shahbaz x NIAB-78 showing the highest values for more than two yield components. All the characters are highly heritable, cross Mc-Niar-3150 x Shahbaz displayed highest heritability for plant height, Mc-Niar-3150 x CIM-109 for sympodia/plant, NIAB-78 x CIM-109 for monopodia/plant and seed cotton yield/plant, Shahbaz x CIM-109 for bolls/ plant, Shahbaz x Mc-Niar-3150 for boll weight and seed index, CIM-109 x Shahbaz for lint index and ginning outturn%. It is further suggested that Mc-Niar-3I50 x Shahbaz, Mc-Niar-3150 x CIM-109, NIAB-78 x CIM-109 and Shahbaz x CIM-109 along with their reciprocals could be selected and further evaluated in further generations. Number of sympodia/plant, boll weight, number of bolls/plant and ginning outturn% are being the effective during selecting the superior genotypes in advanced generations. NIAB-78 x CIM-109 displayed highest seed cotton yield/plant and monopodia/ plant. Shahbaz x CIM-109, Shahbaz x Mc-Niar-3150 and their reciprocals could be evaluated in advanced generations. It is concluded that CIM-109 x Reshmi showed better performance in seed cotton yield/plant and yield contributing characters. The combination Shahbaz x NIAB-78, Mc-Niar-3250 and Shahbaz x CIM-109 displays better performance and could be selected for further evaluation. Boll weight, seed index, lint index and GOT% are highly heritable characters. The selection of genotype on number sympodia/plant, boll weight and GOT% are expected higher seed cotton yield contributing character.