Elucidating combining ability and gene action for some chemo-morphological characters in grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.)

This study aimed at the identification of good general combiners and specific crosses of grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) based on their combining ability and understanding of the gene action underlying the expression of various characters, including seed ODAP content. Five parents were crossed in half-diallel design and were evaluated with the resultant crosses. Most of the characters showed a broad range of genetic variability. The number of pods per plant, protein content of seed, ODAP content in seed and seed yield per plant exhibited high heritability. The expression of most characters was affected by both additive and non-additive gene action. Dominance variance without significant additive variance was observed only for the seed index. Interestingly, recessive alleles contributed more to ODAP content than dominant alleles. The parents BK-1, Mahateora, Ratan and Nirmal were good general combiners for various desirable traits and may be utilized in the further crossing program. The cross BK-1 × Ratan was the best specific combiner for days to early flowering and maturity, with higher protein content, lower ODAP content and seed yield per plant whereas the crosses BK-1 × Pratik and Mahateora × Pratik were better specific combiners for seed ODAP content and protein content. The selected crosses from this study can be used to raise segregating generations to obtain transgressive segregants for better yield and low ODAP content in seeds for future breeding programs.