Performances of F3 and F4 Bulk Populations in Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)

Abstract

The experiment was laid out in 2020 to compare the performance of thirty-seven F3 and F4 multi-parental bulk populations of cotton, including comparative cultivars, and to assess the heritability of traits studied. The differences within generations were significant for seed cotton yield, ginning out-turn, fiber quality, and nep fragments. The mean fiber strength of the F4 generation showed significant performance compared with F3. The broad sense heritability was high for ginning out-turn, fiber length, and fiber strength. The normal distribution for F3 and F4 generations due to non-significant skewness and kurtosis values indicated that there were no epistatic effects on the heritability of traits studied. Eight F4 lines were selected for transfer to F5 generation according to optimization in terms of desired traits.