Inheritance pattern of morphological and yield related traits of Brassica napus L.

The present research was conducted in research area of the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. Five lines (R7, Punjab sarson, Chakwal sarson, ZM-12-10 and R5) and five testers (257, ZNR-1, ZMR-4, Legend, and AUB-2000) were crossed in line x tester design. Parents and their crosses were sown under randomized complete block design with three replications. Data were recorded on various yield related and plant descriptive traits. Analysis of variance showed significant differences among entries for all traits indicating existence of considerable genetic variability in the breeding material. All parents, crosses and their interaction exhibited highly significant differences for all the studied traits. Line ZM-12-10 and tester Legend had maximum mean performance for most of the traits studied while the cross combination Punjab sarson x ZMR-4 had maximum mean value for harvest index and seed yield per plant .The cross combinations Punjab sarson x ZMR-4, R7 x AUB-2000, Chakwal sarson x Legend, Punjab sarson x ZNR-1 and R5 x AUB-2000 had maximum and significant heterosis for all the traits, thus may be exploited using heterosis breeding. Genotype Punjab sarson among lines and 257 among testers were best general combiners for most of the traits. The cross combination R5 x AUB-2000 was best specific combiner for seed yield per plant. The estimates of SCA variance were higher than GCA variance in all traits, showing the predominance of non-additive gene action. The genotypic correlation coefficients were higher than phenotypic ones for the most of the traits indicating that these traits are under genetic control rather than environment. All the traits except plant height, siliqua length and No. of seeds per siliquae had significant and positive correlations with seed yield per plant at both genotypic and phenotypic levels. No. of siliquae per plant and harvest index had positive and direct effect on seed yield per plant and may be used as a selection criteria for high yielding types in Brassica napus L.