Studies on stability and chacterization of early maturing CMS lines of pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millspaugh)

The present investigation was conducted during kharif season of 2012 and 2013 in Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, PAU, Ludhiana to study the stability and morphological characterization of 18 newly developed CMS lines in early background along with GT 288A (A₂ cytoplasm) and ICPA 2089 (A₄ cytoplasm) CMS lines. All the genotypes under study were found to be 100 per cent non pollen shedding i.e. completely male sterile at all dates during kharif season as well as during off-season. It indicated that expression of sterility of CMS lines was not affected by the environmental factors like temperature, relative humidity, sunshine hours and day length. Therefore, these CMS lines can be effec tive ly exploited in hybrid deve lopment programme as these were stable for maintaining their sterility under varying environmental conditions. All the CMS lines were significantly early in flowering and maturity than GT 288A and ICP 2089A. Further, these were also significantly shorter in plant height than GT 288A and ICP 2089A. CMS lines also were identified promising for different traits viz. AL 117A for primary branches, AL 120A for secondary branches, AL 120A and AL103A for pods per plant, seeds per pod and grain yield per plant.