1Division of Genetics, Central Potato Research Institute, Simla.
2Region IV, The International Potato Centre, NBPGR, IARI, New Delhi.
3Department of Agricultural Botany, Meerut University, Meerut.
*A part of the Ph. D. thesis of the senior author submitted to Meerut University, Meerut.
Genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance for 12 morphological and tuber quality characters were studied in 67 potato varieties/hybrids from the germplasm collection. The genetic variability for tuber yield and other related characters was found to be higher than that for tuber quality characters. The estimates of heritability for various characters ranged frgm 42.77% to 87.41%. In general these estimates for the tuber yield components and quality characters were high. The expected genetic advance was relatively higher for tuber number, average tuber weight and protein in fresh tubers, than for other characters. Owing to a low genetic variability for tuber quality characters in group Tuberosum, group Andigena collection may be screened to identify better parents. A reciprocal recurrent selection programme, using Andigena and Tuberosum populations, has been suggested for the improvement of tuber yield and quality characters.
