Expression of Heterosis for Quality Traits in Soybean

The present investigation was carried out by involving five lines and five testers and their twenty five cross combinations in soybean to identify the best heterotic crosses for quality traits. Analysis of variance showed highly significant differences due to genotypes for all the traits indicating the presence of sufficient variability in the experimental materials. Variance due to parents and hybrids showed significant differences between them for all the characters studied. Significance of variance in parents verses hybrids interaction provides adequacy for comparing the heterotic expression of all the characters except oil content. Heterosis was worked out over mid parent, betterparent and standard check variety. Basedon all the three heterotic values the cross co(Soy)3 x Williams was the best cross for all the qualities studied and two crosses viz., Co(Soy)3 x RKS 52 and Co1x NRC 66 were considered for reduced phytic acid content which is an important criteria in soybean improvement programmes.