Heterosis and combining ability analysis for earliness and grain yield in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

Heterosis and combining ability analysis were studied in a 10 x 10 diallel set of bread wheat. Significant heterosis over better parent was observed in HW-5018 x HI 1544 for dwarfness and grain yield per plant. The analysis of variance for combining ability revealed that the mean squares due to both general combining ability (gca) and specific combining ability (sca) were highly significant for all the characterss indicated that both additive and non additive genetic variances played a vital role in the inheritance of all these four traits. The GCA and SCA ratio (σ²GCA/σ²SCA) was less than unity for all the traits indicated that non-additive component play relatively greater role in the inheritance of all the four traits. On the basis of GCA, SCA effects and per se performance, parents HI-1544 for three traits and UAS-281 for two traits were found good general combiners and crosses HW-5018 x Hl-1544 and GW-322 x GW-173 for two traits each were found good specific combiners in bread wheat.