1Part of a thesis submitted by K. S. Bains in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree of the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.
Bread wheat, Triticum aestivum L., populations involving high × high stability parents were consistently superior in buffering ability for grain yield in successive generations. Highly buffered populations for yield were poor or average in buffering ability for the component characters, whereas the opposite was observed in low buffered populations. The proportion of the superior buffering segregates was more in populations involving high × high stability parents than those of high × low or low × low stability combinations. A marked degree of inbreeding depression was observed in successive generations for stability of yield in highly buffered populations. It was inferred that all the three stability parameters, that is, mean performance, regression coefficient and deviation mean square seemed to be equally important. It has also been emphasized that both the concepts of stability given by Finlay and Wilkinson as well as by Eberhart and Russell need to be used depending upon the material under study.
