BIOINFOLET - A Quarterly Journal of Life Sciences

A field experiment was conducted to know the combining ability and heterosis for grain yield and its contributing traits, involving a set of 16 lines, three proven testers and their resultant 48 F₁ hybrids. The magnitude of specific combining ability (SCA) variance was greater than general combining ability (GCA) variance for all the characters indicating the predominance of nonadditive type of gene action. The female x male interaction variance was highly significant for the traits viz., days to 50 per cent an thesis, plant height, ear height, ear length, ear girth, number of kernels row per ear, shelling per cent, grain yield per plant and grain yield. The negative heterosis over standard check for days to 50 per cent an thesis was recorded in P-28 x NEI 9102B, YP-58 x KDMI 15 and P-41 x NEI 9202B and these hybrids recorded good grain yield as compared to the best check 900M. P-21 and KDMI-15 were the best general combiners among the lines and testers, respectively and they could be used in hybrid development. Among 48 crosses, P-2 x NEI 9202B and YP-58 x KDMI15 possessed significant high sca effects as well as heterosis for grain yield which could be tested over locations for their suitability.