The objective of this study was to estimate the inheritance of Rht5 dwarfing gene in wheat. Two tall elite cultivars Ningchun10 and Jinmai47 were crossed with Rht5 donor parent Marfed M, to produce F1. The F1 was allowed to self in order to obtain F2 seeds. Then the segregation populations were evaluated for some genetic parameters viz., coefficient of variability (CV), genetic variance (Vg), heritability percentage (h2 %) and genetic advance (GA) in 5 quantitative characters (Plant height, spike length, number of spikelets spike-1, number of fertile tillers and number of grains spike-1). All the characters were quantitatively inherited with varying degrees. The progeny Jinmai47 and Marfed M exhibited the highest heritability associated with a moderate genetic advance for plant height (h2% 66.65% and GA 17.46). The highest heritability with low genetic advance for spike length, number of spikelets spike-1 was observed in the progeny Jinmai47 and Marfed M. The two progenies showed high heritability associated with high genetic advance for number of fertile tillers and number of grains spike-1. In the two progenies plant height showed highly positive and significant correlation with spike length (0.73 & 0.71), number of spikelets spike-1 (0.55 & 0.52) and number of grains spike-1 (0.71 & 0.59).
The present findings suggest that the inheritance of Rht5 dwarfing gene is high although there is variation between different backgrounds of tall parents. It suggests that the selection at early segregation generation could be efficient for selecting superior lines of wheat with the target dwarfing gene. However, the use of molecular marker techniques could increase the efficiency of selecting superior lines with Rht5.