COMBINING ABILITIES OF SPRING WHEAT (Triticum aestivum L.) FOR GRAIN YIELD AND RELATED TRAITS

Abstract

An 8 x 8 F 2 spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) half diallel population with respective parents was assessed in a field trial at the field laboratory of the department of genetics and plant breeding at the Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, during the period from November 2016 to April 2017, following a randomized complete block design (RCBD). The research objectives were to discover the combining abilities of grain yield and its associated traits. Significant variations among the genotypes were observed for different traits viz., number of spikes plant -1 , length of spike (cm), number of spikelets spike -1 , plant height (cm), straw grain weight (gm), number of grains spike -1 , 1000 grain weight (gm), yield plant -1 (gm), harvest index (%), and grain yield in hectare. The genetic analysis following Griffing's approach revealed significant additive and non-additive gene actions, with a preponderance of both additive and non-additive genetic components for regulating different traits. For grain yield plant -1 BARI Gom 27 and Kheri were observed as the best general combiners whereas BARI Gom 21 × BARI Gom 27 and Kheri × BARI Gom 30 exhibited as the best heterotic patterns. All of the traits investigated had a significant positive correlation with yield plant -1 . BARI Gom 21 × BARI Gom 27 and Kheri × BARI Gom 30 were the top yielding cross combinations on the basis of combining ability among the studied genotypes. Those cross combinations may be used for hybrid crop development or to extract transgressive segregants in developing high-yielding bread wheat cultivars.