Variability Studies in Soybean Genotypes under Different Water Regimes

Soybean (Glycine max L.) is economically one of the most important oilseed crop worldwide which have high protein and oil content. Its productivity is frequently affected due to drought occurrence in India. Variability for root shoot traits under early seedling stage under drought stress may be important selection criteria for development of drought tolerant genotypes. The present investigation was carried out at Net house of Experimental Farm, Mandsaur University, Mandsaur. Sixty genotypes, procured from ICAR-IISR, were used to know the extent of genetic variability under different water regimes [normal, 100 ml (100%), S1, 50 ml (50%), S2, 25 ml (25%) and S3,0 ml (0%)] for root-soot traits and relative leaf water content under early seedling stage. Significant genetic variability was recorded for all the traits among genotypes studied under normal and water stress conditions respectively which showed the presence of ample variability in studied material. High Phenotypic Coefficient of Variation than their corresponding Genotypic Coefficient of Variation for the entire trait under different water regimes denoted influence of environment on these traits. The large genetic variation found in these genotypes may be used to develop varieties with better drought tolerance behavior and used as drought donor lines in drought breeding programs. We measured high heritability for selected characters under non water stress condition (75.05% to 100%) and water stress conditions S1 (81.40% to 100%), S2 (85.69% to 100%) and S3 (92.60% to 99.26%) respectively. Additive gene action interacted to control characters under different water regimes because high broad sense heritability along with high genetic advance as percentage of mean were recorded for most of traits. It is indicating that simple phenotypic selection would be effective for these traits under water stress condition.