GENE ACTION AND COMBINING ANALYSIS FOR YIELD AND ITS ATTRIBUTING TRAITS IN FORAGE SORGHUM [SORGHUM BICOLOR (L.) MOENCH]
Y. D. PATEL, R. N. PATEL, R. A. GAMI*, P. R. PATEL AND Y. A.VIRADIYA
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, CPCA, S.D. Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar (Gujarat)
Potato Research Station, S.D. Agricultural University, Deesa-385 535 (Gujarat)
Sorghum Research Station, S.D. Agricultural University, Deesa-385 535 (Gujarat)
Pulses Research Station, S.D. Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar (Gujarat)
Department of Seed Technology, S.D. Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar (Gujarat)
*(e-mail : ramangami@gmail.com)
(Received : 30 November 2018; Accepted : 25 December 2018)
SUMMARY
The experiment in forage sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] was carried out in
Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three replications to study gene action and combining ability of nine females and three males with their 27 F1’s for fodder yield, its quality and other yield related traits. The ratio of 2gca /2sca was found less than unity for all the traits under study, suggesting greater role of non-additive genetic variance in the inheritance of all these traits. The parents, DSF-123, DSF-138 and DSF-146 were found good general combiners for green fodder yield per plant and its contributing traits viz. number of leaves per plant, leaf width, brix %, dry matter yield per plant and leaf area. On the basis of sca effects, the crosses DSF-130 × CSV 21 F, DSF-140 × GFS 5 and DSF-138 × CSV 21 F were found promising for green fodder yield per plant. These crosses were also manifested high sca values for its contributing traits viz. plant height, number of leaves per plant, leaf length, leaf width, brix %, dry matter yield per plant and leaf area. The crosses exhibiting high sca effects for green fodder yield per plant involved average × average or good × average combining parents. Better performance of these
hybrids for green fodder yield per plant reflected involvement of interaction of dominant and epistasis type of gene action.
Key words: L × T analysis, Gene action, Combining ability, Green fodder yield