Estimation of Combining Ability and Heterosis for Grain Yield and Its Components in Maize (Zea mays L.) Das G.*, Baskheti D.C. Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, 263145, India *email: das0632@gmail.com
Online published on 13 January, 2016. Abstract Ten maize inbred lines and their 45 direct crosses produced through half-diallel scheme were evaluated with two checks during kharif 2011. General combining ability variance was found lower and specific combining ability variance was found higher for all trait like ear length, number of kernel row per ear, number of kernels per row, 100-kernel weight and yield(kg/ha), indi cating the importance of non-additive genes in controlling these traits. The good general combiners were Pj P5and P8 for grain yield, P1 and P5for 100-kernel weight, P2 and P3 for number of kernel/row, P1 for number kernel rows/ear. Heterosis over mid parent, better parent and standard check variety was also estimated. For grain yield heterobeltiosis ranged from 21.25 to 124.55, standard heterosis ranged from-28.94 to 38.54 and average heterosis ranged from 21.74 to 111.48. Hybrids P1 × P4, P3× P6 and P5 × P7 were good specific combiner as well as showedsignificant heterosis for grain yield but another five crosses show higher positive heterosis but SCA was found to be poor, so there was no relationship with SCA effect and grain yield for these crosses. Top Keywords Combining ability, Heterosis, maize. Top |