SELECTION RESPONSE AND CORRELATION STUDIES FOR METRICAL TRAITS IN MUTANT CARNATION (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) GENOTYPES

The present study was conducted to evaluate mutant Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus) genotypes to assess the magnitude of genetic variability and to pick up the heritable component of variation for selection response of metrical traits. Mean data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) that revealed highly significant differences for all the characters studied and  set up of a correlation matrix to analyze the stability capability by critical difference (CD) values and effect of mutagens for character improvement. Total number of leaves/plant was most stable due to its higher CD value; weight of 1000 seeds was highly variable with lower stability. It has been confirmed that 0.4% dose of all three mutagens was highly effective than other doses. The phenotypic and genotypic co-efficient of variation (PCV & GCV) value shows the influence of the environmental effect on the characters. Highest GCV and PCV were noticed for total branches/plant and lowest for total flowers per plant. Heritability ranged from 46.77 (Days to seed germination) to 96.09 (Plant height at 50% flowering phase) per cent. Total number of leaves and branches showed high, seeds per inflorescence and days to branching showed moderate and plant height at 50% flowering showed low genetic advance with higher heritability. Thus, these traits may serve as an effective selection parameter and screening of promising mutant line (s) for crop improvement.