Assessment of Genetic Architecture of Grain Yield and its Component Traits in Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) through Generation Mean Analysis

The suitable breeding procedure for crop improvement mainly depends on knowledge of the genetic make-up of the character to be selected. Unique architectural phenotypes have the vast potential for increasing the yield of the crop. Therefore, the investigation was carried out during three successive seasons Rabi 2009–10, 2010–11 and 2011–12 at Agriculture Research Farm, Banaras Hindu University, U.P. India with objective to estimate the main genetic effects including digenic non-allelic interactions controlling yield and yield component traits as-well-as to determine the yield component that affects yield to a greater extent. The generation mean analysis was carried out on six generations (P₁, P₂, F₁, F₂, B₁ and B₂) in six crosses involving two tester (LAKHAN and BH-902) and three exotic lines (MOROC-9-75, BEECHER and HARMAL) of barley. Duplicate type of epistasis was found for most of the traits in certain cross combinations, whose effect can be wiped out by following sophisticated selection procedure such as reciprocal recurrent selection and/or biparental mating in early segregating generations for the development of high yielding barley varieties with desirable yield contributing traits.