www.tjprc.org editor@tjprc.org GENETIC STUDIES ON YIELD ATTRIBUTING TRAITS IN INDUCED POPULATION OF WHEAT (TRITICUM AESTIVAM L.) OF M 2 GENERATION PANKAJ KUMAR VERMA 1 , A. K. CHAURASIA 2 , S. MARKER 3 , & BINEETA M. BARA 4 1 4 Research Scholar, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, SHIATS, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India 2,3 Associate Professor, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, SHIATS, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India ABSTRACT The current study investigated genetic studies on Yield Attributes Traits viz. days to heading, days to flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of effective tillers/plant, grains/spike, 100 seed weight and seed yield/plant of mutant wheat in the during Rabi 2010-13 at Central Research Field, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, SHIATS, Allahabad, India. Dry seeds of wheat var. K-7903, were irradiated with 00 kR, 05 kR, 10 kR, 15 kR, 20 kR, 25 kR, 30 kR, 35 kR, 40 kR and pre-soaked seeds 00 kR, 05 kR, 10 kR, 15 kR, 20 kR by a 60 Co - gamma chamber at National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India. The study revealed that gamma irradiation significantly affected all the mentioned traits. The value of genotypic coefficient of variance (GCV) for different qualitative traits were observed ranged from 40kR dry (0.32) to 30kR dry (11.12) and Phenotypic Coefficient of Variance (PCV) was obtained ranged from 1.23 (10kR dry) to 26.00 (40kR dry). The seed yield/plant exhibited maximum GCV (13.86) and PCV (14.61).The maximum heritability (broad sense) and genetic advance was recorded under 15kR dry of no. of effective tillers/plant (46.37, 2.55) respectively, as compared to another treatment in the M 2 generation. The no. of effective tillers/plant showed that maximum heritability (broad sense) (90.06) whereas, the plot stand showed that maximum genetic advance (17.45). High values of heritability and genetic advance indicate the possibility of inducing desirable mutations for polygenic traits accompanied by effective selection in M 2 and later generations. The study indicated that not gamma rays doses are equally effective in generating variability for qualitative traits. KEYWORDS: wheat, gamma rays, heritability, genetic advance, M 2 generation Received: Oct 13, 2015; Accepted: Oct 20, 2015; Published: Oct 27, 2015; Paper Id.: IJASRDEC201512 INTRODUCTION History of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) improvement by acclimatization, selection and hybridization dates back to the remote past, but with the passage of time these methods were found to be unsatisfactory because of the limited genetic variation among the existing wheat population. The early research work of Muller (1927) and Stadler (1928) however, opened a new era in the field of plant improvement. Therefore, the plant breeders and geneticists of the 20th century were inclined to radiation as a new tool for plant improvement. Nowadays, mutation induction has become an established tool in plant breeding to supplement existing germplasm, and to improve cultivars in certain specific traits. Effects of gamma rays on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of rice indicated that radiation dose some what improved growth characteristics, but with increasing dose rate, a decreasing trend is observed in the studiedtraits (Saha et al., 2005). Original Article International Journal of Agricultural Science and Research (IJASR) ISSN(P): 2250-0057; ISSN(E): 2321-0087 Vol. 5, Issue 6, Dec 2015, 89-92 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.