Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Jawaharlal Nehru Agriculture University, Jabalpur, India
*Present address: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, 1-11-256, Begumpet, Hyd., India.
Online published on 25 January, 2012.
A dwarf wheat-Agropyron translocation (T1) when crossed with the tall Indian variety C 273, threw segregates with varying plant height. To compare the genetics of height in the translocation derivatives in contrast to the widely popular Norin-10 derivatives, crosses were made among five whea.t-Agropyron translocation lines of varying height and three standard varieties of normal, two gene and three gene plant height. The general and specific combining ability variances and estimates of D and H indicated predominance of additive gene action but with some non-additive gene action. The frequency distribution of some critical crosses in F2 showed that the translocation derived lines clearly had a genetic system different from the Norin-10 derivatives and it was highly influenced by the genetic background. This was also confirmed by the g.c.a. and s.c.a. effects of the critical crosses and the position of array points on the Wr Vr graph. The wheat-Agropyron derivatives could be important as an alternative source of dwarfing in an applied breeding programme.
