USE OF COMBINING ABILITY, HERITABILITY AND GENETIC ADVANCE IN BREEDING PROGRAMMES
I. S. PANWAR, R. K. ARYA, DIVYA PHOUGAT AND S. K. PAHUJA
Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding
CCS Haryana Agricultural University,
Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
(e-mail : isp.panwar@gmail.com)
(Received : 12 October 2015; Accepted : 15 December 2015)
SUMMARY
The choice of suitable parents for producing desirable hybrids is most important and fundamental step in hybridisation programmes since certain combinations produce much superior offspring than others involving apparently equally promising parents. The knowledge about the combining ability effects of the genotypes may help the plant breeder in selecting parents which when crossed would produce more desirable segregates. Biometrical methods like diallel, partial diallel and line x tester may be used for testing the combining ability of parents and their hybrids at an early stage of the programme. Further, estimates of heritability also serve as a useful guide to the plant breeder. If heritability of a character is high than selection would be much easier. But for a character with low heritability, selection will be difficult. The degree of heritability should not be taken as sole criterion while drawing conclusions about the expected genetic gain. Hence, heritability estimates along with expected genetic advance are usually more helpful than heritability value alone.
Key words:Combining ability, heritability, genetic advance, breeding programmes