Abstract
Development of drought tolerant cultivars requires genetic information of physiological and agronomic traits of a crop under
drought stress condition. A drought tolerant (B-557) and a drought susceptible (FH-1000) cultivar of upland cotton (G.
hirsutum L.) were crossed to develop F1, F2 and backcross generations (BC1& BC2). All the generations along with parents
were grown under drought stress in the field. Genetic analysis was conducted for relative water content, excised leaf water
loss, cell membrane stability, plant height, number of monopodial branches, number of sympodial branches, number of bolls
per plant, boll weight, ginning out-turn, fibre length, strength and fineness. The results revealed that all the traits were
quantitatively inherited. Additive, dominance as well as genetic interactions were found in the inheritance of the traits.
Medium to high narrow sense heritability was observed for all the traits. Correlation analysis showed that the genes involved
in maintaining high relative water content and cell membrane stability had genetic linkage with those controlling bolls per
plant, fibre length and fibre strength. The genetic analysis suggested that while breeding cotton for drought tolerance,
selection of promising plants in advanced segregation populations would be appropriate when the genetic interactions are
fixed and the selected plants reproduce for the desirable traits.
