A HALF diallel set of crosses involving the six parental lines
were used to estimate the type and relative amount of gene
tic variance components for; grain yield per plant, numbef
of spikes per plant, number of kernels per spike, 1000-
kernel weight, protein percentage, and gluten content.
Significant additive type of gene action was detected
in all cases. With the exception of number of spikes per
plant, significant dominance effect was detected in all traits.
Studies of nature and degree of dominance revealed the
existence of; over dominance for all traits except number
of spikes per plant where partial dominance was the case
The negative and positive alleles were unequally dis
tributed among the parental population in all cases except
the grain yield/plant.
High estimates for heritability in the broad sense were
accompanied by moderate to low values for the narrow
ones were obtained for most traits.
The correlation between parental performances and
their order of dominance revealed that few number of
spikes per plant, number of kernels per spike, low protein
content and heavy weight of 1000-kernel behaved as domi
nant traits. No particular trend could be detected for the
rest two traits.
The ultimate goal of any plant breeder is to develop new varieties of
high yielding capacity and superior quality. T accomplish this, must divise
a breeding program which will allow him to produce and reproduce geno
types that represent somewhere near optimum combinations of genes for
a particular area. An analysis based on large number of progenies pro
duced from diverse parents is expected to give relial,le estimates. The
breeder should know, not only what portion of the total variation among
plants is a direct result of genetic differences, but also the nature of the
genetic variation that exists.
The present work was carried out to study the genetic behavior of
yield and its components, and protein and gluten contents to formulate
the most efficient breeding procedure.
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