The Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding

Possibilities of exploitation of heterosis using functional-genetic male sterility in B juncea was explored by studying the extent of heterosis for yield and other characters in 19 F₁ hybrids against five commercial cultivars. Eighteen hybrids outyielded the best check RLM 514. Three of them viz. MS X Pant Rai 1002, MS X RH 848 and MS X RLC 1047 were significantly superior over the best check in seed yield by 81.19%, 50.65% and 64.94% respectively. The overall heterosis (taking all hybrids and checks into account) for seed yield was very high (59.69%). The agronomic superiority of the three hybrids was reflected by 1.5 to 2.0 times oil yield and one week earliness in flowering as compared to RLM 514.