COMBINING ABILITY AND HETEROSIS FOR SOME YIELD TRAITS AND PROTEIN CONTENT IN PEARLMILLET
ANIL KUMAR, I. S. YADAV* AND R. K. ARYA
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding,
CCS HAU, Hisar-125004(india)
*(Email: ishwar.yadav@gmail.com)
(Received: 13 December 2013; Accepted: 27 December 2013)
SUMMARY
The present investigation was carried out in Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, CCS HAU, Hisar during kharif season to identify good general combiners and good specific cross combinations and to estimate the extent of heterosis in pearlmillet. The material for present study was developed by crossing 10 male sterile lines viz., HAMS9A, HAMS13A, HAMS14A, HAMS18A, HAMS22A, ICMA89111, ICMA94222, ICMA94555, ICMA95222 and ICMA95555 with five diverse pollinators/testers viz., CSSC46-2, G73-107, H90/4-5, H77/833-2 and 1307 in line x tester fashion. All the 50 crosses along with the check HHB94 were grown in randomized block design with three replications. Data were recorded on five competitive plants for grain yield(g)/plant, dry fodder yield (g)/plant, days to 50 % flowering, plant height (cm), ear length (cm), effective tillers (no.)/plant, ear girth (cm), ear weight (g), total biological yield(g)/plant, harvest index (%),1000-grain weight (g) and protein content(%). Among the testers, CSSC46-2, and G73-107 expressed highly significant and positive gca effects for grain yield and also for most of its components. On other hand H77/833-2 and 1307 were the good general combiner for protein content. It revealed that the crosses ICMA95222 x CSSC46-2, ICMA94555 x G73-107, HAMS13A x CSSC46-2 and ICMA94222 x G73-107 possessed significantly higher yield and most of its contributing traits. These crosses not only exhibited high sca effects but also expressed high per se performance for grain yield and its component traits. Out of these only four namely ICMA95222 x CSSC46-2 (92.05%), ICMA94555 x G73-107 (77.76%), HMS13A x CSSC46-2 (66.76%) and HMS9A x CSSC46-2 (55.52%) showed more than 50 per cent heterosis over check HHB 94. Standard heterosis over check HHB94 for protein content exhibited by only two crosses HMS9A x 1307 and HMS18A x H77/833-2. These crosses can be further used for the improvement of nutritional quality.
Key words: Pearl millet, grain yield, fodder yield and protein content, gca and sca effects.