Architecture of seed yield in jute

Combining ability analysis from five-parent diallel sets without reciprocals involving F₁ and F₂ generations of Corchorus olitorius L. and C. capsularis L. revealed that both additive and nonadditive types of gene actions were operating in the inheritance of plant height, days to flower, fruits/plant, fruit size, seeds/fruit, 100-seed weight, seed weight/fruit and seed yield/plant. Partitioning of dominance variance indicated that a considerable part of dominance gene action was due to the asymmetry of dominant gene distribution among the parents. The results also pointed out that additive variance was the major genetic component for days to flower, pod length, 100-seed weight and seed yield/plant in C. olitorius and for plant height as well as seeds/capsule in C. capsularis. Narrow sense heritability estimates for these traits were high except in one case. Among all the parents, JRO 7835 was identified as a promising general combiner for seed yield and its components.