The Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding

Genetic control of the protein per grain (PPG) in rice (Oryza sativa L.) was investigated through nine-parent half-dialld analysis. Overall partial dominance of high PPG over the low was noted. However, at an individual loci, both the magnitude and the direction of dominance were inconsistent due to unequal distribution of dominant and recessive alleles, as well as the alleles with increasing and decreasing effects, in the parents. The dominant alleles were in excess of recessive, and a separate study had indicated that only the parents with the shikimate dehydrogenase-1² (Sdh.1²) allozyme had an excess of alleles with increasing effects on PPG. Due to insignificant environmental variance recorded and the additive genetic component being larger than the dominance component, the heritabiltiy estimates both in broad sense (0.97) and narrow sense (0.71) were high, suggesting usefulness of early generation selection for the genetic improvement of PPG.