Combining Ability Studies for Yield and its Related Traits in Indian Mustard [Brassica Juncea (L.) Czern & Coss]

Combining ability for yield and its component traits was studied in fifty nine progenies of Indian Mustard (Brassica juncea (L.) Czern & Coss) consisting of 45 F₂ (9 lines x 5 testers) along with fourteen parents. The analysis revealed significant differences for general and specific combining ability effects indicating that both additive and non-additive gene effects governed the inheritance of seed yield and other component traits. Parents RLC-1055-1 and Pusa Bold were good general combiners for seed yield and number of component traits. Crosses having high specific combining ability for yield and component traits involved low and average combining parents indicating the predominance of non additive gene effects. Most of the progenies have high performance for seed yield or component traits which suggest undesirable linkages which can be broken by judicious combination of biparental mating or diallel selective mating followed by appropriate index selection methodology for developing high productive genotypes.