High Heritability of Glycyrrhizic Acid, Glabridin, Liquiritin and Liquiritigenin in Licorice (Glycyrrhiza Glabra L.) Populations of Iran
Abstract Glycyrrhiza glabra L. is an herbaceous, perennial plant with high distribution in Iran. Genetic variability, heritability and correlation among characters in 22 populations of G. glabra L. were studied. The genetic parameters among the traits including phenotypic variances, genotypic variances, genotype by environment variances, broad-sense heritability and genotypic and phenotypic correlation coefficients were studied. Variance components analysis showed that the extent of phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was fairly higher for all the examined traits compared with genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV). Glabridin (GLA) exhibited high GCV and PCV (156.07% and 156.68%, respectively). The broad sense heritability varied from 38.92–99.79% and narrow sense heritability ranged from 9.70 % to 24.94%. Heritability of GLA, glycyrrhizic acid (GLY), liquiritin (LI), liquiritigenin (LIQ), rutin (RU) and rosmarinic acid (RA) were very high, exhibiting more than 97% heritability. Therefore, these critical characteristics can efficiently be selected and inherited in breeding programs. In most traits, the genotypic correlations showed the same direction as the phenotypic correlations. The contents of GLA and LIQ showed a positive correlation with majority of morphological traits. Therefore, selecting individual plants having desired morphological traits can be correlated with high contents of bioactive compounds in the harvested root.