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Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, S.V. Agricultural College, ANGRAU, Tirupati-517 502.
Combining ability for yield and yield attributing traits was studied in 60 crosses made by using Line × Tester mating design involving 30 lines and 2 testers which were evaluated along with the four checks, namely BIO9544, DKC9127, P3396, and P3546. The purpose of the study was to identify and select superior parents and best crosses combinations on the basis of general and specific combining abilities. The general combining ability effects revealed that among lines PI 21, PI 334, PI 2, UMI 1200, PI 5, PI 1, PI 8, P1 19 where as in testers LM 13 are the good combiners for grain yield plant-1 which can be used in development of superior crosses. Among the crosses PI 21 × LM 13, PI 1 × LM 13 and PI 18 × LM 13 are identified as superior crosses for grain yield plant-1.
KEYWORDS: Maize, combining ability, grain yield plant-1.
Maize is one of the most important cereal crops worldwide, serving as a staple food, animal feed and as source of industrial raw materials. It is native to Central America and belongs to family Poaceae and sub family Panicoideae. Maize is known as the “Miracle Crop” due to its versatility and high adaptability. It is photo insensitive crop. As a C4 plant, maize is physiologically more efficient and has a higher grain yield potential compared to other members of the grass family. This efficiency and productivity have earned maize the title “Queen of Cereals.” Although maize is typically grown during the kharif season, rabi maize has recently gained appeal among farmers and international seed firms due to its great production potential. The success of rabi maize is attributed to its lengthy growth season, bright days, dry, moderate temperatures that are better suited to the crop, and a lower insect population.
Line × Tester analysis, an extension of top cross method in which more than testers are used to mate with selected inbred lines is very prominently used for estimation of combining ability of inbred lines and to make the selections easier. It is widely used in breeding of cross-pollinated crop provides information regarding the selection of inbred lines for hybrid combination (Khan and Dubey, 2015). This design thus provides information about general and specific combining ability of parents and at the same time it is helpful in estimating various types of gene effects. It is very effective for identification of desired lines, so as to increase the frequency of targeted alleles in hybrids. The variance due to General Combining Ability (GCA) is usually considered to be an indicator of the extent of additive type of gene action (Sedhom et al., 2007), whereas Specific Combining Ability (SCA) is taken as the measure of non- additive type of gene action in the heterosis breeding (Irshad-ul- Haq et al., 2010). The ratio of GCA to SCA variance determines the gene action involved in the inheritance of those traits. If ratio that is less than unity represents predominance of non-additive gene action while it is more than unity represents predominance of additive gene action (Kumawat et al., 2021).
The experimental material consists of thirty lines, two testers, four checks and sixty crosses which were produced by crossing of lines with testers in Line × Tester mating design. The resulting 60 F1s, 30 lines and two testers were evaluated along with four checks in alpha lattice design with two replications during at S.V Agricultural college, wet land farm, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India in the following rabi, 2023-24. Each entry was planted in two rows of 4 m long plot. The spacing between the rows was 60 cm and plant to plant distance was 20 cm. Data were recorded on five randomly selected plants from each plot for days to 50 per cent anthesis, Days to 50 per cent silking, days to maturity, plant height, ear height, ear length, ear girth, kernel rows cob- 1, number of kernels row-1, 100 kernel weight and grain yield plant-1. In order to test the combining ability effects of parents (GCA) and crosses (SCA) the combining ability variances were worked out by following Line × Tester analysis suggested by Kempthorne (1957).
Analysis of variance for combining ability revealed that the parent’s vs hybrids exhibited significant difference for all the traits except for kernel rows cob-1 indicating the presence of variability in the genetic material (Table 1). Crosses recorded significant differences for all the yield contributing characters except for days to maturity. The crosses effects were partitioned into line effect, tester effect and line × tester effect. Line effects exhibited non-significant differences for all the traits except for plant height and ear height representing the presence of variability for these two traits among the lines. Tester effects exhibited significant differences for the traits like days to 50 per cent silking, ear length and 100 kernel weight indicating the presence of variability for these traits among testers. The interaction effects were significant for traits like days to 50 per cent silking, days to maturity, ear height, ear length, number of kernels row-1, 100 kernel weight and grain yield plant-1, that which represents the presence of variability for these traits among the crosses in the present study. The component of variance due to SCA was higher than GCA in all the studied traits indicating the predominance of non-additive gene action for these traits recorded by Lahane et al. (2014), presented in Table 4.
The per cent contribution towards the total variance was maximum due to interaction of lines and testers for most of the traits like days to maturity, number of kernels cob-1, ear girth, days to 50 per cent silking and days to 50 per cent anthesis while contribution of lines alone towards total variance was maximum for traits ear height, plant height, kernel rows cob-1, ear girth, grain yield plant-1 and contribution of testers alone towards total variance was maximum for the trait 100 kernel weight (Table 4).
General combining ability effects (Table 2.) revealed that the lines PI 20 (-1.642**), for days to 50 per cent anthesis, PI 5(-1.342*) exhibited negative significance gca indicating these parents turned out to best combiners for earliness, similar findings were identified by Ahmad and Ansari (2017), Matin et al. (2016), Sandesh et al. (2018), Kanagarasu et al. (2010), Izhar and Chakraborty (2013) and Reddy et al. (2011). None of the lines recorded significant gca and sca effects for days to maturity Susanto et al. (2021). Observations of plant height showed, parents PI 1(31.05**), PI 2(19.05**), PI 3(17.551**), PI 5 (13.051*), PI 334 (17.801**) and PI 21 (26.031) were good combiners for plant height, similar findings by Keerthana et al. (2023). Lines PI 1 (19.053**), PI 2 (17.353**), PI 3 (15.653**), PI 4 (7.553*), PI 5 (13.353**), PI 7 (8.602**), PI 11 (13.303**), PI 21 (13.903**), PI 334 (13.453**) and UMI 1200 (14.403**) are good combiners for ear height previous results by Matin et al. (2016) and Reddy et al. (2011). The lines PI 334 (1.610*), PI 21(1.515*), PI 7 (1.475*) and the tester LM 13 (0.394*) exhibited positive significant gca effects in positive direction and considered as good general combiner for the trait ear length in desirable direction. The lines PI 22 (1.185**), PI 21 (1.315**) and PI 19 (0.865*) are good combiners for ear girth similar results by Reddy et al. (2011). PI 1 (2.410**) and PI 8 (1.110*) exhibited positive significant gca effects for kernel rows cob-1. The lines PI 21 (5.206**), PI 334 (3.956**), PI 8 (3.231*) and UMI 1200 (3.006*) showed positive significant gca for number of kernels row-1. PI 19 (2.740*), PI 21 (2.500*) and tester LM 13 (0.773**) exhibited positive significant gca effects in positive direction and considered as good general combiner for 100 kernel weight in desirable direction similar results by Reddy et al. (2011). The lines PI 21 (38.825**), PI 1 (38.625**), UMI 1200 (19.885**), PI 334 (18.225**), PI 19 (15.655**), PI 2 (11.850*), PI 8 (11.575*) and tester LM 13 (4.356**) exhibited positive significant gca effects in positive direction and considered as good general combiner for the trait grain yield plant-1 in desirable direction in agreement with Kanagarasu et al. (2010).Hence by considering above, parents PI 21, PI 334, UMI 1200, PI 2, PI 5, LM 13, PI 1, PI 3, PI 7, PI 8, PI 19, and PI 22 were considered good for most of the more than one character under study. So, these parents can be used in hybrid programme for production of superior hybrids. The high positive significant gca effects for different characters helps in selection of outstanding parents. Paul and Duara (1991) reported that the parents with high gca always produce crosses with high sca. The gca is due the additive effects and additive × additive gene action. Further, in the present study the parental in breds were given ranking based on the respective combining abilities of all the characters studied (Table 5). The line, PI 21 ranked first followed by PI 334, UMI 1200, PI 2, PI 5, LM 13, PI 1, PI 3, PI 7, PI 8, PI 19, and PI 22.
The estimation of SCA effect showed (Table 3.) that there was no desirable significant cross obtained for days to maturity, plant height and kernel rows cob-1 these result in agreement with Keerthana et al. (2023). However, sca effects indicates that cross combination PI 10 × LM 14 showed negative significant sca effects for days to 50 per cent anthesis and days to 50 per cent silking which is considered to be desirable. Related to ear height the crosses PI 4 × LM 14 (15.913**), PI 11 × LM 13 (12.938**), PI 14 × LM13 (10.838**), PI 18 × LM 14 (9.063*), UMI 1200 × LM 13 (8.438*), PI 19 × LM 14 (7.513*) and CML 581 × LM 14 (7.213*) exhibited significant sca effects in positive direction considered as good specific combiners for this trait in desirable direction similar findings by Suresh et al. (2023) and Azum et al. (2024). Out of 60 crosses studied, the crosse PI 10 × LM 14 (2.119*) exhibited significant positive sca effects for ear length previous results by Ahmad and Ansari (2017), Reddy et al. (2011) and Keerthana et al. (2023). With respect to ear girth the cross PI 21 × LM 13 (1.137*) exhibited significant sca effects. For number of kernels row-1 good crosses were PI 21 × LM 13 (5.386**) and PI 10 × LM 14 (4.814*). Related to 100 kernel weight some of the crosses which showed good combinations were PI 21 × LM 13 (3.862*) and PI 14 × LM 13 (3.740*) exhibited significant sca effects in positive direction. the crosses PI 21 × LM 13 (41.644**), PI 1 × LM 13 (36.644**), PI 18 × LM 14 (22.456**), CML 582 × LM 14 (18.781**), PI 14 × LM 13 (17.144**), PI 11 × LM 14 (16.903*), PI 19 × LM 14(15.186*) and PI 10 × LM 14 (14.956*) showed good cross combinations for grain yield plant-1 similar results by Sandesh et al. (2018), Ahmad and Ansari (2017) and Kanagarasu et al. (2010). Significant positive sca effect involved parents where one or both parents were related to good combiners, indicating gca of the parental line plays a key role for high yield Talukder et al., (2016).
In the present study among the 32 parents (30 lines and 2 testers) evaluated for combining ability pertaining to grain yield and its contributing traits, the line PI 21 exhibited significant gca effect in desirable direction for plant height, ear height, ear length, ear girth, number of kernels row-1, 100 kernel weight and grain yield plant-1; PI 334 for plant height, ear height, ear length, number of kernel rows-1 and grain yield plant-1; PI 1 for plant height, ear height, kernel rows cob-1 and grain yield plant-1; PI
2 for plant height, ear height and grain yield plant-1; UMI 1200 for ear height, number of kernel rows-1 and grain yield plant-1; PI 5 for days to 50 per cent silking, plant height and ear height; PI 7 for ear height and ear length; PI 8 for kernel rows cob-1, number of kernel rows- 1 and grain yield plant-1; PI 19 for, ear girth, 100 kernel weight and grain yield plant-1; PI 3 for plant height and ear height; PI 22 for ear girth. Among the testers LM13 recorded significant gca effect in desirable direction for traits like ear length, 100 kernel weight and grain yield plant-1. None of the parents exhibited significant gca effect for days to maturity.
Among the 60 crosses, significant high sca effects in desirable direction was recorded by the cross PI 10 × LM 13 for days to 50 per cent anthesis and days to 50 per cent silking; PI 21 × LM 13 for ear girth, number of kernel rows-1, 100 kernel weight and grain yield plant-1; PI 14 × LM 13 for ear height, 100 kernel weight and grain yield plant-1; PI 10 × LM 14 for ear length and number of kernels row-1; and PI 4 × LM 14 for ear height. None of the crosses exhibited significant sca effects for days to maturity, plant height and kernels rows cob-1.
In the present study the three high yielding crosses viz., PI × LM 13, PI 1 × LM 13 and PI 8 × LM 13 with good sca involved the parents with good gca indicated the predominance of additive × additive gene action. These three crosses may be considered for multi-location testing. The crosses viz., PI 2 × LM 13, PI 334 × LM 13 and UMI 1200 × LM 13 with non-significant sca for grain yield involving parents with significant gca may be recommended for recombination breeding followed by selection in later generations for development of superior inbreds.
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