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Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Abstract

Selective breeding of basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) is primarily aimed at improving plant architecture and essential oil quality, which are critical factors in increasing yield. In lemon-scented basil, the citral component responsible for the intense lemony aroma has significant commercial value in the cosmetics and perfumery industries. This study aimed to evaluate the genetic variability, heritability, and genetic advance of nine agronomic and quality related traits in lemon basil lines, and to explore the interrelationships among these traits. The phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was higher than the genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all traits, suggesting the influence of environmental factors. Citral yield had the greatest variability, GCV, and PCV. Broad-sense heritability estimates were high for all traits except canopy diameter. Notably, narrow-sense heritability was highest for fresh herb yield (73.31%) and citral yield (67.94%), indicating a strong influence of additive genetic effects. In contrast, essential oil content had the lowest narrow sense heritability (13.79%), suggesting limited response to selection due to low additive genetic effects. The highest genetic advance over mean was observed for citral yield (33.39%) and citral content (17.10%), reinforcing their potential for improvement through selection. Correlation and path coefficient analyses showed that citral yield was most strongly associated with essential oil yield and citral content, both of which had direct and positive effects. In conclusion, the high heritability and genetic advance values of citral yield highlight its promise as a primary selection criterion. Citral yield, which is directly influenced by citral content and essential oil yield, stands out as the most reliable trait for achieving genetic advances in lemon-scented basil breeding programs.

Author ORCID Identifier

ERDİNÇ GÜNAY: 0009-0000-3352-3009

İSA TELCİ: 0000-0002-3651-1641

DOI

10.55730/1300-011X.3483

Keywords

Basil, citral, selection, heritability, genetic advance

First Page

534

Last Page

543

Publisher

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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