Assessment of genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance and character association studies for yield and yield related traits in yellow sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench)

Introduction

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is the fifth most important cereal crop globally, following rice, wheat, maize, and barley in terms of production and utilization (FAO, 2021) [10] . Its remarkable resilience to drought, heat stress, and poor soils makes it particularly wellsuited to arid and semi arid environments, earning it the nickname "camel of crops" Tari et al., (2013) [22] and Prasad et al. (2019) [16] . As a C4 diploid species (2n = 20), sorghum plays a vital role as both a food and fodder crop, especially in regions such as Africa and India By identifying traits with strong genetic influence and significant yield associations, the findings will support efficient selection strategies and contribute to the development of improved yellow sorghum varieties for sustainable agriculture and better nutrition.

Materials and Methods

The field experiment was conducted during the rabi season of 2024 at Agriculture Research Station (ARS), Tandur, PJTAU, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad India, under agroclimatic conditions suitable for sorghum cultivation. The experiment utilized a Randomized Block Design (RBD) and evaluated a total of 52 genotypes. Each block consisted of two rows, typically 3 to 4 meters in length, with a row spacing of approximately 45cm and a plant spacing of 10 to 15cm within rows. Standard agronomic practices, including appropriate irrigation, fertilization as per recommendations, and integrated pest management, were uniformly applied to ensure optimal crop performance. Data collection focused on key agronomic and yield-related traits such as days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of leaves per plant, leaf length and width, panicle length and width, number of grains per panicle, 100 seed weight, grain yield per hectare, and fodder yield per hectare. observations were recorded from five randomly chosen plants per plot, and their mean values were used for statistical analysis. The collected data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) appropriate for the randomized block design. Genotypic and phenotypic variances, broad sense heritability, and genetic advance were computed to assess genetic variability and improvement potential, while correlation coefficients among traits were calculated to examine trait interrelationships. Correlation analysis reveals the degree and direction of association among traits allowing breeders to prioritize traits with genuine yield contributions. All statistical analyses were performed using INDOSTAT software version 9.1.

Results and Discussion

Analysis of variance

The statistical analysis was carried out according to the technique of Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for Randomized Block design which was studied for twelve traits (Table 4.1). The results obtained revealed that the genotypes included in the study had significant variation for all the traits indicating considerable amount of variation present in this material. The results of the variance analysis are shown in Table2 , while the estimates for mean, variability, heritability, genetic advance for each trait are detailed in Table 3, Character association studies for each trait detailed in table 4

Mean, GCV, PCV, Heritability and Genetic Avance

Days to 50% flowering (DFF) is a critical trait that determines vegetative duration and aids in escaping terminal drought, thereby significantly influencing grain yield in sorghum. In the present study, the mean DFF among the sorghum lines was 71.1 days, with the earliest flowering observed in PYPS 11 (62.33 days) and the latest in ICSV 17263 (78.00 days), indicating substantial variability for this trait.Days to maturity (DM) influence the grain-filling period and total dry matter production. Extended maturity generally supports higher yields under non-stress environments (Vinoth et al., 2021) [24] . The average maturity was 115.2 days, with the earliest maturing genotype being PYPS 11 (105.33 days) and the latest ICSV 17241 (121.00 days). Plant height (PH) is associated with both grain and fodder yield potential, contributing to lodging resistance and photosynthetic surface area. The mean plant height was 217.2 cm, ranging from 144.33 cm in ICSV 17263 to 235.33 cm in ICSV 17250 and ICSV 17260.

The number of leaves per plant (NL) contributes to the crop's photosynthetic capacity, thereby influencing overall biomass accumulation (Vinoth et al., 2024) [24] . Leaf number ranged from 10.67 leaves in ICSV 17234 to 16.33 in ICSV 17260, with a mean of 13.7. Leaf length (LL) and leaf width (LW), as components of leaf area, influence light interception and dry matter production. In the present study, leaf length ranged from 41.00 cm in PYPS 6 to 58.33 cm in ICSV 17234, with an average of 51.9 cm. Leaf width varied from 4.00 cm in ICSV 17258 to 6.23 cm in ICSV 17217 and ICSV 17230, with an average of 4.9 cm. Panicle length (PL) and panicle width (PW) directly influence the number of grains per panicle and, consequently, the yield (Chibvongodze et al., 2025) [4] . Panicle length ranged from 9.44 cm in ICSV 17253 to 21.20 cm in PYPS 2, with a mean of 16.3 cm, while panicle width varied from 9.11 cm in ICSV 17222 to 20.77 cm in ICSV 17261, averaging 13.9 cm. The number of grains per panicle (NGP) is a direct component of grain yield. Higher grain numbers are typically associated with well-filled, large panicles. In this study, NGP ranged from 777.33 in ICSV 17214 to 1803.82 in PYPS 13, with a mean of approximately 1, 450. grains. Test weight (TW), or 100-grain weight, measures grain density and size, reflecting both yield potential and marketable quality. The test weight ranged from 1.96 g in ICSV 17220 to 3.73 g in ICSV 17256, with a mean of 2.6 g. Grain yield (GY) is the most critical trait in sorghum breeding, influenced by the interaction of several morphological and physiological components (Chibvongodze et al., 2025) [4] . Yield across genotypes ranged from 3, 214.68 kgha -1 in ICSV 17222 to 4498.60 kgha -1 in ICSV 17259, with a mean of 4031.1 kgha -1 .Fodder yield (FY) is a crucial trait in dualpurpose sorghum varieties, as these provide both grain and biomass. It is generally positively correlated with plant height and leaf area. In this study, fodder yield ranged from 6015.67 kgha-1 in ICSV 17214 to 9296.88 kgha -1 in ICSV 17252, with an average of 8360.1 kgha -1 . Days to 50% flowering (DFF) showed low PCV (6.93%) and GCV (6.75%), combined with high heritability (94.8%) and moderate GAM (13.53%), implying additive gene action and strong response to selection-aligning with findings of low heritability in heading and maturity traits in sorghum populations (Prasad and Sridhar (2019) [16] Days to maturity (DM) also exhibited low PCV (4.36%) and GCV (4.23%), high heritability (94.1%) but low GAM (8.47%), indicating limited selection gain despite high genetic control, as similarly reported for maturity traits in sorghum Mengistu et al. (2020) [15] . Plant height (PH) had low GCV (7.69%), low PCV (9.10%), high heritability (71.4%), and moderate GAM (13.38%). These values reflect moderate environmental influence and match general variability profiles in sorghum germplasm collections Goswami et al. (2020) [11] and Lata and Shailesh (2001) [13] . Number of leaves (NL) showed low GCV (8.81%) but moderate PCV (12.08%), with moderate heritability (53.3%) and GAM (13.25%), suggesting environmental effects limit direct selection, consistent with similar observations in other sorghum accessions by Khandelwal et al. (2015) [12] . Leaf length (LL) exhibited low GCV ( [18] . Panicle width (PW) had moderate variability (GCV: 14.53%, PCV: 17.68%), high heritability (67.6%), and high GAM (24.62%), indicating strong genetic control and high selection potential, consistent with sorghum studies by Chavan et al. (2007) [3] . [19] , where grain number per panicle showed high heritability (68%) in large germplasm sets. Test weight (TW) had GCV (14.79%), PCV (15.86%), high heritability (87.0%), and GAM (28.44%), suggesting strong additive genetic influence. This mirrors high heritability (83%) reported for 100 grain weight in sorghum germplasm by Prasad and Sridhar (2019) [16] , Fodder yield (FY kgha-1) showed low GCV (9.28%) and moderate PCV (10.59%), high ritability (76.7%) and moderate GAM (16.73%), Grain yield (GY kgha-1) exhibited low GCV (9.42%), PCV (10.91%), moderate heritability (74.6%), and moderate GAM (16.75%) which aligns with the findings of Santhiya et al.( 2021) [18] . In the present study, Days to 50% flowering (DFF) exhibited a strong positive correlation with days to maturity (0.98**), suggesting that genotypes flowering later also tend to mature later, which aligns with the expected physiological growth pattern in sorghum (Reddy et al., 2006) [17] . It also showed [17] . Plant height showed significant positive correlations with fodder yield (0.45**), leaf width (0.247**), panicle width (0.165*), number of grains per plant (0.169*), and grain yield (0.2052*), indicating its contribution to biomass and productivity Deshmukh et al. (2021) [5] . Number of leaves had positive and significant correlations with leaf width (0.360**) and fodder yield (0.1993*), but negative associations with panicle width (-0.153*) Shivaprasad et al., (2019) [20] and Lokesh & Biradar, (2021) [14] . Leaf length showed a significant positive correlation with test weight (0.259**), Reddy et al., (2006) [17] . Leaf width had strong positive correlations with panicle width (0.1651*), number of grains per plant (0.239*), and fodder yield (0.35**), * (Reddy et al., 2006) [17] . Number of grains per plant had highly significant positive associations with fodder yield (0.3638**) and grain yield (0.3735**), but showed a strong negative correlation with test weight (-0.625**), indicating a trade-off between grain size and number Sheetal et al., (2021) [19] . Test weight was positively correlated with grain yield (0.2876*), fodder yield (0.2121**), panicle width (0.314**), and leaf length (0.259**), while its negative relationship with number of grains (-0.625**) confirms the inverse link between seed size and number Santhiya et al., (2021) [18] . Fodder yield had strong positive associations with grain yield (0.6577**), plant height (0.45**), leaf width (0.35**), panicle width (0.3070**), number of grains (0.3638**), and number of leaves (0.1993*), confirming its close link with vegetative biomass and productivity Ashwini & Kajjidoni, (2019a) [1] . Finally, grain yield showed strong positive correlations with fodder yield (0.6577**), number of grains per plant (0.3735**), test weight (0.2876*), and panicle width (0.255*), while being negatively associated with number of leaves (-0.3728) and leaf width (-0.3551), suggesting that an optimum leaf structure is necessary for enhanced yield performance.

Character association studies for yield and yield related components

Conclusion

The present study demonstrated substantial genetic variability among 52 yellow sorghum genotypes, with significant differences across all measured traits. High heritability and genetic advance for traits such as test weight, number of grains per panicle, and panicle width indicate the potential for effective improvement through selection. Correlation and path analyses further revealed that grain yield is positively influenced by traits like fodder yield, test weight, panicle width, and grain number, while excessive vegetative traits like leaf number and width may detract from yield potential. These results underscore the importance of integrating agronomic and physiological traits in selection indices. Ultimately, the identified highperforming genotypes and associated traits provide a valuable foundation for targeted breeding programs aimed at enhancing yield and nutritional quality in yellow sorghum for sustainable agricultural systems.

Acknowledgment

This research was financially and technically supported by Agriculture research station Tandur and Professor Jayshankar Telangana Agriculture University.

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