Combining behavior of Elite Synthetic Hexaploid wheats with stable wheat cultivar

The genetics of elite synthetic hexaploid wheats were studied using ten synthetic wheats and three well adapted wheat cultivars in line x tester design. The analysis of variance for combining ability revealed significant differences for all the characters, among females, males and female x male. The ratio gca to sca variance for all the characters was less than unity indicated preponderance of non-additive gene action. Two elite synthetic wheat ES-8 and ES-73 were the best combiners for inducing early maturity trait used to overcome the severity of late heat. ES-73 was best combiner for all the characters except for number of days to maturity, number of effective tillers per plant and plant height. Among the male parents RSP-81 was best combiners for grain yield per plant, number of grains per ear and number of effective tillers per plant, cross ES-24 x RSP-81 was best specific combination. This cross combination was also best for number of days to maturity, relative water content of leaves and number of grains per ear.