Trends in Biosciences

Combining ability analysis was carried out in a 8x8 diallel of bread wheat for grain yield and its components trait excluding reciprocals at Main Wheat Research Station Vijapur, S.D. Agricultural University Sardarkrushinagar during rabi 2008-09. Both additive and non-additive type of gene action played an important role for the inheritance of characters. The ratio of gca to sca genetic variance for all characters indicated that non-additive type of gene action was predominant in the expression of all traits, i.e., plant height, number of effective tillers, length of main spike, spikelet per spike, grains per spike, 1000-grain weight, grain yield per plant, protein content, hectoliter weight, harvest index and sedimentation value. The parental lines GW 496, GW 397 and VA 06-15 were good general combiners for grain yield and other yield components. GW 404 was good general combiner for grain yield per plant, 1000grain weight, grain protein content and sedimentation value. The crosses GW 273 x GW 496, GW 392 x GW 273 and VA 06-15 x GW 322 recorded the highest sca effects and they involved average x good, poor x average and good x poor gca parents. The cross VA-06-15 x GW 404 for grain protein content and cross GW 392 x GW 397 for sedimentation value expressed highest sca effects.