Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh
*Part of a thesis submitted by J. C. Sharma for the requirements of Ph.D. degree of the Kanpur University, Kanpur.
Direct selection response for economic traits related to development and productivity in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) was studied from 10 × 10 F1 and F2 diallel generations. The direct selection gain among developmental traits was maximum for brown rust incidence followed by that for plant height and synchrony of growth of tillers; among component traits, 1,000-kernel weight seemed to be highly responsive followed by number of spikelets/spike and number of grains/spike, the genetic advance being of acceptable magnitude in both the generations.. The genetic gain was lower for days to maturity, early growth vigour, days to flower and grain yield/plant in F1 and F2. The heritability estimates were quite comparable for all the traits except for brown rust incidence, days to flower, productive tillers/plant and grain yield/plant in which deviations occurred from F1 to F2. 540 selections combining developmental and productive traits were isolated from F2’s.
