The efficiency of a breeding program depends mainly on the direction of the correlation between yield and its components and the relative importance of each component involved in contributing to seed yield. The interrelationships of nine quantitative traits in 28 genotypes of spring oilseed rape (days to flowering, days to end of flowering, duration of flowering, days to maturity, pods per main raceme, pods length and pods per plant, and seed yield) were computed. Significant genotypic effects were found for phenological traits, yield components, and seed yield, indicating significant genetic differences among the genotypes. High broad sense heritability was estimated for phenological traits, seeds per pod, and seed yield, signifying high selection gain for improving these traits. Path coefficient analysis revealed that days to flowering and number of pods per plant had the highest direct effects on seed yield. Duration of flowering, number of branches, pods on main raceme, pods per plant, and seed yield had high genetic coefficient of variation. The results of factor analysis showed three factors including factor 1 (phenological traits), factor 2 (primary yield components), and factor 3 (secondary yield components). The results of stepwise regression analysis revealed that pods per plant, number of branches, and duration of flowering had considerable effects on seed yield. 1. Introduction Improvement of seed yield in canola (Brassica napus L.) has been the main objective of canola breeders for many years [1, 2]. Seed yield is a quantitative trait, which is principally influenced by the environment and consequently has a low heritability [3, 4]. As a result, the response to direct selection for seed yield may be unpredictable, unless there is good control of environmental variation. Plant breeders are seldom interested in a single trait and therefore, there is the need to examine the relationships among different traits, especially between seed yield and other traits. As the number of independent variables influencing a particular dependent variable increases, a certain amount of interdependence is expected. In such situations, correlations may be inadequate to explain the associations in a way that will enable breeders to decide on a direct or indirect selection strategy [5]. The multivariate analyses, particularly factor and cluster analyses, are utilized for evaluation of a large number of accessions for different traits in a germplasm collection. Cluster analysis assigns genotypes into qualitative homogenous groups based on response similarities and
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