Epistatic and Other Genetic Variances in Green Gram Varieties

Abstract

Study of the parents, F1, F, and backcross generations involving either parents of five green gram crosses revealed that the additive gene effect was involved in the expression of days to flower and number of branches per plant; whereas, besides additive gene effect, dominance and nonadditive epistatic gene effects were also involved in the expression of plant height. The dominance gene effect was principally responsible for grain yield whereas dominance and nonadditive epistatic gene effects were involved in the expression of pod yield. The expression of pods per plant was controlled by nonadditive epistatic gene effect, while pod length was controlled by additive and additive additive or dominance gene effects. Besides additive x additive gene effect, additive and dominance were also found responsible for the expression of seeds per pod. Isolation of superior genotypes from the segregating population followed by inter se crossing, keeping adequate sample size for each cycle would be more desirable for effective utilization of the gene effects observed for grain yield and its attributes.