Department of Plant Breeding, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Naini Tal (U.P.)263145. India
*Present Address: Vivekananda Laboratory for Hill Agriculture, Almora, U.P. 263601
Twenty F1 crosses and their 17 F2 populations involving highly diverse, moderately diverse and less diverse parents were evaluated to find out the relationship between genetic divergence of the parents and heterosis in F1 generation and genetic variability in F2 generation in soybean. It was observed that, in general, dive.gent crosses showed high heterosis for most of the characters but the maximum heterosis was not observed in most divergent crosses. Maximum heterosis was displayed by those crosses in which parents were moderately diverse. The tntra-cluster crosses were less heterotic. For most of the characters greater variabil ty in F2 was observed in those crosses having moderate to highly diverse parents. The F2 population derived from ‘UPSM 726 x Type 49’ cross, which involved moderately diverse parents, produced most variable progeny for primary branches, pods per plant and seed yield.
