Genetic Variability and Divergence Studies in Quantitative Traits of Wild Pomegranate (Punica granatum L)

The mean performance and variability in quantitative traits of Punica granatum seed sources collected from five different districts comprising of ten seed sources. Two seed sources were considered from each district viz; Narag and Neripul from Sirmour district, Waknaghat and Sadhupul from Solan district, Sundernagar and Rewalsar from Mandi district, Mohal and Banjar from Kullu district, Basantpur and Sunni from Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh, India, were evaluated during the year 2018-19. The quantitative traits viz., morphological and seedling characteristics of seed sources varied significantly among the different districts and within the districts. The phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) for all the characters was slightly higher than genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV), which signified the presence of environmental influence to some degree in the phenotypic expression of characters. Collar diameter had the highest PCV (76.83) and GCV (26.67). Genetic advance was recorded as maximum for tree diameter per plant (5.57), whereas genetic advance as percent of mean was highest for tree height (4.86). Highest heritability (H2 , 99.77) was coupled with higher genetic advance (5.57) estimated for tree diameter per plant, which indicated that the character is controlled by additive genes and therefore further improvement could brought by selection. Tree diameter was significantly and positively associated with most of the characters except number of branches per plant, at both genotypic and phenotypic levels; therefore, these are important prerequisites to formulate a successful improvement program. Cluster analysis was performed and the seed sources were grouped into three clusters. The results showed significant variance among different morphological characters, traits namely tree height (m), tree diameter (cm), crown spread E-W (m), crown spread N-S (m), fruit weight (g), leaf length(cm), internodal length(cm), collar diameter (mm), number of branches per plant and leaf petiole (cm)