Vol. 12, Issue 7 (2023)

Author(s):
Anand Singh, Vinod Singh and Govind Mishra

Abstract:
The present investigation entitled “Combining ability effects for yield and its attributes in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L. em. Thell.) under sodic soil” was carried out with 48 F1’s developed by crossing of lines (FLW-15, FLW-8, KRL-20, K-402, HD-2851, KRL-1-4, DBW-14, CHIRYA-1, KRL-3-4, HI-1563, FLW-2, FLW-11, HD-2009, HI-3118, K-9006 and DBW-39) with 3 testers (NW-1067, PBW-778 and NW-2036) including three checks (KRL-19, KRL-210 and NW-1076). Seventy genotypes comprising 48 F₁, 16 parents and 3 checks (16 lines+3 testers + 3 checks) were evaluated in Randomized Complete Block Design with 3 replications in two environments/conditions (E₁= Timely Shown; E₂= Late Shown). Recommended cultural practices were followed to raise a good crop. Each plot consists of a single row of 3m in length having row-to-row and plant-to-plant distances of 30cm and 10cm, respectively. Out of sixteen parents, five parents in E1 and four parents in E2 showed positive and significant GCA effects for seed yield and other important traits and could serve as valuable parents for hybridization programmes or multiple crossing programmes for obtaining high-yielding variety or transgressive segregants for developing varieties of wheat. The sca effect of the crosses is an estimate for making a selection of superior cross combinations. High specific combining ability denotes, undoubtedly a high heterotic response, however, this does not mean high performance of the hybrids as well. In general, a maximum number of crosses that showed significant sca effects were invariably associated with better per se performance for respective traits. A perusal of data revealed that the good specific combiners involved parents of low x low, average x high, average x low, low x high and high x high general combining ability effects. From these findings, it is obvious that best cross combinations are not always result from high x high general combiners, but may also be occurred in other types of parental combinations. However, in the majority of cases, the crosses exhibiting high sca effects were found to have both or one of the parents as a good general combiner for the characters under study.