Genetic components of variation in rice

Genetic analysis of components of variation for yield and yield components revealed the importance of both additive and non-additive type of gene action in the inheritance of characters, in a 7 x 7 diallel study. However, dominance component was higher than the additive component for number of productive tillers per plant, panicle weight, panicle length, 1000-grain weight, number of fertile spikelets per panicle, yield per plant and harvest index and these traits had low narrow sense heritability. Plant height had high heritability. The breeding techniques to exploit the genetic components are discussed.