HERITABILITY AND GENETIC ADVANCE FROM SELECTION FOR MORPHOLOGICAL, BIOCHEMICAL AND ANATOMICAL TRAITS OF Chenopodium quinoa UNDER WATER STRESS

The present investigation aimed at estimating heritability in broad sense (h2b) and genetic advance (GA) from selection for agronomic, physiological, leaf amino acids and anatomical traits of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) under elevated water stress. A two-year experiment was conducted in a split plot experiment with five replications. The main plots were devoted to three irrigation regimes, i.e. well irrigation (WI), moderate irrigation stress (MIS) and severe irrigation stress (SIS), achieving a field capacity of 95, 65 and 35%, respectively, and sub plots to five quinoa genotypes. For agronomic and physiological traits, h2b ranged from 0.0% for inflorescences/plant (IPP), 1000-seed/plant (TSW) and seeds/plant (SPP) under WI, plant height (PH) and IPP under MIS to > 97.0% for root length, inflorescence length and seed yield/plant under all irrigation treatments. For amino acids, h2b ranged from 78.01% (Serine) to 99.95% (Proline) under WI, from 73.66% (Tyrosine) to 100.0% (Valine) under MIS and from 93.69% (Asparagine) to 99.98% (Proline) under SIS. For anatomical traits, h2b ranged from 33.33% (lower epidermis) to 100% (upper epidermis) under SIS. GA for agronomic and physiological traits generally increased as water stress increased and ranged from 0% (IPP, TSW, SPP) to 26,04% (inflorescence diameter) under WI, from 0% (PH, IPP) to 58.27% (branches/plant; BPP) under MIS and from 0% (SPP) to 101.87% (IPP, BPP) under SIS. For amino acids, GA ranged from 12.26% (Glutathione) to 26.00% (Leucine) under WI, from 16.94% (Lysine) to 25.56% (Threonine) under MIS and from 16.03% (Alanine) to 87.79% (Methionine) under SIS. For anatomical traits, GA ranged from 30.40% (leaf thickness) to 87.12% (spongy layer) under WI, from 52.66% (leaf thickness) to 82.72% (palisade layer) under MIS and from 15.40% (upper epidermis) to 72.97% (palisade layer) under SIS. Results indicated that the best selection environment was SIS for all studied traits, except for upper epidermis and spongy layer, which was WI.