Inheritance of quantitative traits in opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.)

Lodging in opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) leads to seed loss and consequently loss of the economically important constituent, morphine. Enhancing lodging resistance through plant breeding is the objective of a program at the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) in Lucknow, India. Specific objectives of the program are moderate plant height and high yield potential. Prior to finalize the breeding strategy it was necessary to gather the genetic information on selected parents. The magnitude of genetic parameters was determined from an analysis of F1 and F2 progenies from an eight-parent diallel. Data was collected from F1 and F2 generations for days to 50% flowering, plant height, peduncle length, leaves per plant, leaf length, leaf width, branches per plant, stem diameter, capsules per plant, seed yield, capsule index and percent morphine. The dominance component H1 was significant for all the characters except for morphine content in both F1 and F2. The additive component (D) was not significant for 13 of the 28 tests (F1 and F2 generations for 14 traits). Results suggested that heterotic breeding approaches should be followed for exploiting the over-dominance effects, while recurrent selection is utilized for overall population improvement of the opium poppy.