M. B. Patil K. Satish, A. A. Khule, R. M. Chauhan and P. T. Patel
Abstract
Five newly converted cytoplasmic male sterile lines were crossed with six fertility restorer lines in line x tester mating design during kharif 2013 at the Centre of Excellence for Research on Pulses, Sardarkrushinagar. The resultant 30 hybrids were evaluated along with their parents and the standard checks (GT 101) in randomized block design with three replications during kharif 2014. Analysis of variance evinced the presence of adequate amount of variability in parents and their hybrids for most of the characters studied. Combining ability analysis revealed presence of additive and non- additive gene effects under present study. The lines, CMS GT 303 A, CMS GT 304 A among females (A lines); and GTR 81 and GTR 82 among males (R lines) were good general combiners for seed yield and other one or more characters. Hybrids CMS GT 305 A x GTR 86, CMS GT 303 A x GTR 85 and CMS GT 304 A x GTR 81 exhibited highly significant sca effects in desire direction for seed yield per plant and other one or more characters. Hybrid CMS GT 302 A x GTR 82, CMS GT 304 A x GTR 81 and CMS GT 302 A x GTR 83 were the three best standard heterotic crosses for seed yield per plant. These crosses also manifested high and significant standard heterosis for number of pods per plant and number of branches per plant. The present investigation revealed the involvement of additive as well as non-additive gene effect for yield contributing traits with predominance of additive gene action for seed yield per plant was found under this situation, as the additive type of gene action was the chief cause of transgressive segregation, favours selection was very effective under this situation so selection is preferred in sub-sequent generation for crop improvement. Thus, these hybrids could be selected for enhancement of productivity in pigeonpea.