Department of Plant Breeding, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
*A part of the disseration submitted by the senior author in the partial fulfilment of Ph.D. degree to the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.
Heterosis and combining ability for protein content was studied in a diallel involving seven parents. The study revealed that the magnitude of heterosis observed for protein content was small. Close examination of the protein content of hybrids revealed the presence of genes showing dominance both in positive and negative direction for protein content. The combining ability and components of genetic variance analyses indicated the importance of both additive and non-additive (dominance and epistasis) gene action for protein content. The parent Jawahar 45 in general and the cross P 23–67 × Jawahar 45 in particular can be used to obtain pure lines with protein content still higher than what is available in the present material. Breeding procedure based on the gene action observed has been suggested.
