TITLE:
Assessment of Heritable Variation and Best Combining Genotypes for Grain Yield and Its Attributes in Bread Wheat
AUTHORS:
Nusrat Parveen, Amna Kanwal, Etlas Amin, Fariha Shahzadi, Saba Aleem, Mehvish Tahir, Abia Younas, Rasheda Aslam, Nafeesa Aslam, Iqra Ghafoor, Mehvish Makhdoom, Muhammad Amin Shakir, Muhammad Najeebullah
KEYWORDS:
Wheat, Combining Ability, Yield, Diallel, Additive Genetic Variation
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.9 No.8,
July
24,
2018
ABSTRACT: Grain yield in wheat is
the resultant of several plant attributes. It is very important to assess
heritable variation involved in the inheritance of these attributes in addition
to find the best
combining genotypes. For this purpose, the present study involving 5 × 5 full diallel analysis
was performed. Twenty F1 hybrids along with their parents (9797,
9801, 9802, Chakwal-50 and Chakwal-86) were planted in field using randomized
complete block design (RCBD) with three replications in the research area of
Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture,
Faisalabad during 2015-2016. Plant characters like plant height, flag leaf
area, spike length, No. of fertile tillers per plant, No. of grains per spike,
No. of spikelets per spike, 1000 grain weight and grain yield per plant were
studied in this experiment. Mean squares due to general combining ability (GCA)
were highly significant for all the traits except for spike length for which
GCA effects were significant. Mean squares due to specific combining ability
(SCA) and reciprocal combining ability (RCA) were highly significant for all
the characters studied. GCA variance was higher than the SCA variance for spike
length and No. of grains per spike exhibiting the predominant role of additive
genetic variation in the inheritance of these traits. However, for the characters
like plant height, flag leaf area, No. of fertile tillers per plant, No. of
spikelets per spike, 1000 grain weight and grain yield per plant, the value of
SCA variance was higher than the value of GCA variance showing non additive
gene action for these traits. The variety Chakwal-50 proved to be the best
general combiner for plant height, spike length, No. of spikelets per spike,
No. of grains per spike and grain yield per plant. The cross, 9802 × Chakwal-86 was the best specific combination for grain
yield and most of the yield attributes. The good general and specific
combiners are important breeding resources for the initiation of future wheat
breeding programmes aimed at enhancement of grain yield in bread wheat.