Genetic studies in M4 progenies of lathyrus CV. NLK-73

The present investigation entitled, "Genetic studies in M4 progenies of Lathyrus CV. NLK-73" aimed to estimate variances due to within family and between family, to estimate genetic parameters and to identify superior mutants for yield and yield contributing characters with low ODAP content. The experiment was conducted in Rabi 2024 season at Research farm of Agricultural Botany Section, College of Agriculture, Nagpur. Material under study 29 M₄ mutants along with the checks NLK-73 and Ratan, were evaluated in a Randomized Complete Block design with three replications. Seven traits days to first flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of branches plant-1, pods per plant, 100-seed weight and seed yield per plant were recorded and subjected to analysis of variance. Highly significant family mean squares for all traits confirmed substantial genetic variability among the M₄ progenies. Intraclass correlation coefficients indicated considerable within-family variation and clear differentiation among families, suggesting that both among-family (σ²f) and within-family (σ²w) variance components should be weighted equally during selection. The genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation ranged from high to low across characters, as did broad-sense heritability and genetic advance expressed as a percentage of the mean. When all genetic parameters were considered jointly, only seed yield per plant, pods per plant and branches per plant combined moderate to high GCV, moderate to high heritability and high genetic advance, marking them as the most promising traits for selection. Considering the above three characters, NLM-12, NLM-13, NLM-17, NLM-20, NLM-21, NLM-22, NLM-23, NLM-26, NLM-27 and NLM-28 were isolated as superior mutant lines for forwarding to the yield trial.