BIOINFOLET - A Quarterly Journal of Life Sciences

Present study deals with heterosis for seed cotton yield (SCY) and its component traits in 45 F₁ hybrids derived from a line × tester mating design involving three elite female lines and fifteen testers. Trials were conducted under rain fed conditions at Phulambri and Pisadevi, Maharashtra, during kharif season of 2020. Mid-parent heterosis for seed cotton yield ranged from 42.28 % to 129.57 %. Better-parent heterosis peaked at 45.2 % and standard heterosis against the check ‘NHH-44’ reached 28.6%. Yield-component heterosis followed similar trend, with BN MPH up to 60.2 %, SP MPH up to 51.1 %, and BW MPH up to 32.1 %. Strong positive correlations between heterosis of SCY and of BN (r = 0.72**), SP (r = 0.68**), and BW (r = 0.55**) were observed. that Crosses AKH-8828 × MCU 7, AKH-081 × Abadhita, and AKH-8828 × Abadhita were found promising for the development of hybrid cotton.