Inheritance of Grain Size in Pearl Millet

In a diallel analysis of crosses involving diverse parents for 1000-grain weight, it has been observed that bold grain showed dominant genes with positive additive effect. Inbred K-560-230-23 has been found to be a suitable parent for improvement of grain size. Highest yield was obtained from the cross K-560-230-23 × J104 involving inbred lines with bold grain. Thousand-grain weight has high positive correlation with yield. Development of male sterile lines with bold grain is suggested to improve the yielding ability of hybrids.