Heterosis Studies for Root-Yield-Attributing Characters and Total Alkaloid Content over Different Environments in Withania somnifera L

Iqbal Ahmed, Rajendra Babu Dubey, Devendra Jain (), Mohamed A. El-Sheikh and Prashant Kaushik
Additional contact information
Iqbal Ahmed: Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur 313001, India
Rajendra Babu Dubey: Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur 313001, India
Devendra Jain: Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur 313001, India
Mohamed A. El-Sheikh: Botany and Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Prashant Kaushik: Independent Researcher, 46022 Valencia, Spain

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 5, 1-12

Abstract: Ashwagandha is an important, medicinal, less exploited crop and most of its cultivated varieties are local cultivars. Information related to ashwagandha’s genetic diversity is very limited. Hybrid vigor exploitation may be useful in breaking its yield barrier at a commercial scale. A total of 45 F 1 crosses were produced during Kharif 2017-18 by using a line x tester matting design, which included three testers along with 15 lines. A total of 65 genotypes were grown in an RBD design, with three replications in three different environments during Kharif 2018-19, and observations were recorded for 11 different yield-attributing traits that were responsible for the estimation of the magnitude of the heterosis. An analysis of variance showed that a valuable amount of diversity existed in the breeding material. Based on the study, three promising crosses viz., UWS-305 × UWS-10, UWS-305 × RVA-100, and UWS-301 × RVA-100 were identified as superior heterotic materials for the root yield at harvest, whereas for the total alkaloid content, three excellent hybrids viz., UWS-309 × RVA-100, UWS-305 × RVA-100, and UWS-314 × RVA-100 were reported. Out of the above crosses, the cross-combination of UWS-305 × RVA-100 showed a significantly positive and useful heterosis on a pooled basis. Hence, the above crosses may be gainfully utilized in breeding programs for ashwagandha.

Keywords: ashwagandha; medicinal plant; cross; environments; heterosis; yield attributes; root yield; total alkaloid content (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/5/1025/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/5/1025/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:5:p:1025-:d:1141401

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().