Evaluation the Genetic Diversity and Transgressive Segregation for Yield and Yield Components of F6 Linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) Lines Derived from KO37 × CAN1066 Cross

   In order to investigate the genetic variation and transgressive segregation of some agronomic traits in F6 linseed breeding lines derived from KO37 × CAN1066 cross, 824 breeding lines (selected from 106 F5 lines) evaluated using an augmented design along with five-control genotypes. The highest genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) were observed for seed weight / capsule (53.39%), whereas, number of days to maturity showed very low GCV (2.71%). Overall, considerable variation was observed for studied traits among breeding lines. The average seed yield per plant of breeding lines was 0.270g with a range of 0.126 to 0.480 g among F5 families, whereas seed yield /plant in KO37 and CAN1066 parent were 0.490 and 0.158 gr/plant, respectively. The highest broad sense heritability was obtained for number of branches/plant (97.03%( but, seed yield ha-1 had the lowest value (64.34%). Heritability of seed yield/plant was 83.33%. Number of capsule/plant showed the most positive transgressive segregation (28/08%). Also, considerable positive transgressive segregation was observed for days to 50% flowering (26/43%) and number of branches/plant (6.61%). The genetic gain for seed yield/plant, number of capsules/plant, number of branches/plant was 85.18, 77.99 and 68.10 %, respectively. The range of heterobeltiosis varied from 2.46 to 3.60, from14.35 to 18.50 and from 0.039 to 0.041 for number of branches/plant, number of capsules /plant and seed yield /plant, respectively. Because of high genetic variation in this population there is the possibility of selecting superior lines for evaluation and production of new varieties.