Abstract

Heritability, genetic advance is essential to know about yield potential of crops. To find out heritability and genetic advance this study was designed at the research area of The Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar, during 2021-22. The experiment was carried out by using 27 wheat genotypes comprising 9 parents and 18 F3 segregants and evaluated in RCB Design with 3 replications. Highly significant variation showed by analysis of variance among parents and F3 populations for plant height, days to heading, spikelet’s spike-1, flag leaf area, tillers plant-1, number of grains spike-1, thousand grain weights and biomass yield. Highest heritability estimates 0.82 was observed by cross Watan × Janbaz for plant height; 0.88 for spike length by Fakhr-e- Sarhad × AUP-5008; 0.87 for spikelet’s spike-1 by Pirsabak-2005 × AUP-5008; 0.89 for flag leaf area by Barsat × Tatara; 0.86 for fertile tillers plant-1 byFakhr-e- Sarhad × Tatara; 0.76 for grains spike-1 byPirsabaq-2005 × Tatara; 0.88 for days to heading by Watan × Tatara; 0.86 for days to maturity by Watan × AUP-5008 and AUP-4008 × Janbaz; 0.89 for grain yield by Barsat × Tatara; 0.87 for 1000-grain weight by Barsat x Janbaz; 0.86 for biological yield by Watan × AUP-5008 and 0.84 for harvest index by Barsat x Janbaz. Highest values for genetic advance were 32.71 cm for Fakhr-e- Sarhad × AUP-5008 for plant height; 20.33 cm2 by Fakhr-e- Sarhad × Janbaz for flag leaf area; 35.08 days by Pirsabaq 2005 × Tatara for days to heading and 34.24 days for days to maturity by Watan × Tatara. The parental genotype, Janbaz, and Watan × AUP-5008, Pirsabak-2005 × AUP-5008, Saleem-2000 × Janbaz and Watan × Tatara were the most promising genotypes for yield contributing characters and are recommended to be evaluated in upcoming breeding schemes.