Gene Action for Yield and Yield Contributing Characters in Indigenous Maize (Zea Mays L.) Germplasm of Himachal Pradesh

Gene action studies were conducted on grain yield and yield contributing traits in a line x tester in maize. The line x tester interactions revealed sufficient variability for all the traits, except days to 50 per cent silking and pollen shedding, kernel rows per ear and test weight in the material under investigated. The estimates of SCA variance were higher in magnitude from the corresponding GCA variance for all characters during individual years as well as pooled over years. The estimates of components of genetic variance though revealed the importance of both additive (s²_A) and dominance (s²_D) genetic variances for yield and some other traits, however the dominance components were higher in magnitude and more predominant for all the traits, thus signifying the importance of non additive gene action (dominance deviation) in controlling the inheritance of these traits. Further, the estimates of heritability (ns) were, in usually low and inconsistent for different characters which further confirm the negligible role of additive gene action in the expression of these traits. Under such situation, transgressive or recombinant breeding may not be useful and heterosis breeding will be a better choice.