1Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003, Tamil Nadu, India
2Department of Plant Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics, Centre for Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003, Tamil Nadu, India
3Department of Agricultural Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003, Tamil Nadu, India
*Corresponding Author: C. Babu, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003, Tamil Nadu, India, Email: babutnau@gmail.com
Online published on 4 October, 2024.
Narrow genetic base and lack of exploitable variation have become a major constraint for yield improvement in greengram. Identifying genetically superior parents and breeding scheme to be adopted become a pre-requisite for the development of elite cultivars. Thereby, blending the knowledge on gene action and combining ability plays a key role.
Combining ability analysis was carried out in twenty-five crosses derived out of Line × Tester mating design using 5 lines and 5 testers. The hybrids, parents and the check variety were evaluated in a RBD with two replications and ten quantitative characters were recorded.
Non-additive gene action was found to be prevalent for the quantitative traits observed. Exploring the per se and gca effects, COGG13-39 and VGG18-002 were adjudged as the best parents and the crosses involving above parents will be productive for synthesizing a dynamic population with superior recombinants. Meanwhile, exploring the per se, sca and heterosis, the best specific crosses identified for seed yield/plant and pods per plant were, V2709 × GAM5 and COGG13-39 × VGG16-058. They can be further exploited to obtain transgressive segregants for higher yield, bold seeds and bruchid resistance through appropriate breeding strategy.
Combining ability and gene action, Greengram, Line ×, Tester analysis
