Genetic nature of yield and its component traits in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

A set of diallel crosses involving eight rice genotypes including reciprocals was evaluated for yield and yield attributing traits to study the nature of gene action. Gene action revealed that the characters like plant height, effective tillers plant⁻¹, panicle length, number of grains panicle⁻¹, spikelet sterility, 1000-grain weight and grain yield were influenced by both additive and non-additive genetic components. Proportion of dominant and recessive alleles was distributed unequally among the parents. The heritability in narrow sense was highest for panicle length (38.37); while for all other characters, it was very low. Proportion of dominant genes in the parents was higher for characters like spikelet sterility, effective tillers plant⁻¹, 1000-grain weight, grain yield plant⁻¹ and panicle length. All the characters were mainly governed by non-additive gene action, which can easily be exploited through hybrid production in rice.