A comparative analysis of biparental and F₃ progenies of Indian mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Czern & Coss]

The present investigation was carried out to assess the genetic variability generated as biparental progenies (BiPs) and F₃ populations from the crosses, RH 725 × Urvashi (cross I), DRMRIJ 31 × Urvashi (cross II) and PM 27 × Urvashi (cross III) in Indian mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Czern & Coss] under field during rabi 2020–24. Both biparental and F₃ progenies exhibited significant variability for seed yield and most yield-related traits across all crosses, except for plant height in cross II. However, the mean performance of BiPs was generally higher than the corresponding F₃ progenies, indicating the generation of significant genetic variability, shedding light on the dynamics of genetic inheritance and expression within Indian mustard. While the BiPs showcased superior mean performance in pivotal traits, F₃ generation displayed competitive superiority in traits including days to 50% flowering, plant height, number of secondary branches per plant, number of seeds per siliqua, 1000-seed weight, biological yield per plant and oil content. It is evident that good recombination occurred from intermating, and also the dominance and epistasis components might have played some role in the increase in the mean of BiPs, compared to F₃ For a few traits, the genetic variability carried over to the F3 generation and made selection effective. The study reflected that the use of genetically divergent parents such as RH 725, DRMRIJ 31 and PM 27 crossed with Urvashi enhanced recombination potential and the crosses seem to have facilitated the appearance of novel segregants in both F₃ and BiPs and offered enhanced opportunities for selecting transgressive segregants, giving enhanced yield and oil content gain.