Study of Heterosis in Rabi Sorghum Hybrids Using Diverse Cytosteriles

Present study was undertaken following linextesteranalysis involving 6 male sterile lines of three diverse cytoplasmic backgrounds (A, A and A) and 4 testers for exploitation of heteros is in Sorghum hybrids. Analysis of variance revealed the presence of significant differences due to parents, crosses and parents vs crosses, indicating variability. For grain yield/plant A cytosterile PMS20A based hybrid showed higher per se performance along with significant positive heterosis. For shoot fly damage %, hybrid M-31-2Ax 4109 exhibited highest heterotic effects along with highest perse performance. For number of leaves/plant, Acytosterile based: 9Ax 10515; for leaf length and leaf width, A cytosterile based: 1409Ax AKR492; for relative water content at 50% flowering, Acytosterile based: 20Ax 2043 exhibited highest heterotic effects in desirable direction. Thus the pattern of cytoplasmic effect on mean performance and heterosis was not uniform which might be due to dissimilar genetic background of iso-cytosteriles or due to cytoplasmic genetic interaction of A and R lines.