Diallel analysis for nodulation and yield contributing traits in chickpea

The experiment consisting six genetically diverse chickpea lines and their fifteen F1s made in diallel fashion was conducted for combining ability analysis for nodulation and seed yield components. Genetic analysis revealed that both additive and non-additive genetic components of variation are important for inheritance of all the characters. However, the magnitude of non-additive (sca) variance was considerably higher than additive (gca) variance. The parents ‘HC 3’ for 100-seed weight, biological yield, seed yield, nodule weight and root weight; ‘HC-1’ for harvest index and plant weight; ‘HC-2’ for number of nodules and nitrogen content and ‘H96–99’ for number of pods and leghaemoglobin content were identified as good general combiners. The cross combination ‘ICC 4993‘ × ‘HC 3’ was the best for seed yield per plant, biological yield, harvest index and plant weight while crosses involving ‘H96–99’ and ‘HC-1’ as one of the parent were recorded as better combinations for leghaemoglobin content, nitrogen content and number of nodules. In view of parallel role of both additive and non-additive genetic effects determining the inheritance of different characters, their simultaneous exploitation through adoption of biparental approach/early generation mating is suggested.