Estimates of gene effects and detection of epistasis for yield characters in mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek]

The assessment of gene effect for some yield characters and detection of epistasis in mungbean was studied in five crosses involving six parents through generation mean analysis during kharif 2012 at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) Varanasi. Six populations viz., P₁, P₂, F₁, F₂, B₁ and B₂ of five crosses involving six parents were evaluated. The nature and magnitude of gene effects for yield and its components in mungbean was studied using six parameter model of generation mean analysis. The presence of epistasis was detected by joint scaling test and inadequacy of additive-dominance model was established. Additive (d), dominance (h) gene effects along with one or more type of non-allelic interactions (i, j, l) contributed significantly towards the inheritance of all the quantitative characters in majority of the crosses. Duplicate type of epistasis was also prevalent in most of the cases with few exceptions. Thus, reciprocal recurrent selection may be suggested for improvement of mungbean populations.