Vol. 11, Special Issue 5 (2022)

Author(s):
Seema Thakur, Jayesh Garg, Amit Vikram, RK Dogra and Rajesh Thakur

Abstract:
Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is having a significant place in the family Asteraceae, which is broadly developed and devoured around the world. The health promoting properties of leaf lettuce have been credited to minerals, nutrients, vitamins (B₉, C and E) and polyphenols (carotenoids, phenolic acids and flavnoids). In lettuce high amount of phytonutrients is combined with low dietary fats, which makes lettuce an alluring low calorie food. Due to great yield potential and higher health benefit, the area under lettuce is increasing. There is an earnest need to examine the inconstancy in lettuce to recognize explicit genotype for better yield and quality. The success of every breeding programme depends upon the extent of genetic variability in the germplasm and the association of quantitative traits with yield and amongst themselves. The present investigation was carried out on twenty two diverse genotypes of leaf lettuce including standard check cultivar Solan Kriti in a Randomised Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications at the Experimental Farm of KVK, Kandaghat during the summer season of 2020, to ascertain the extent of variability, correlation and path coefficient analysis in leaf lettuce for yield and other horticultural traits among the genotypes. High heritability coupled with high genetic gain was recorded for iron content (91.17% and 72.59%) and β carotene content (92.65% and 70.29%), while high estimates of heritability coupled with moderate genetic gain was observed for the traits viz., leaf area (89.62% and 39.03%), calcium content (86.02% and 42.59%) and dry leaf weight (80.10% and 45.81%).