COMBINING ABILITY FOR YIELD AND QUALITY TRAITS IN SINGLE CROSS HYBRIDS OF MAIZE (ZEA MAYS L.)

Abstract

Combining ability of some polygenic and quality traits was studied in a set of diallel crosses involving 10 maize inbreds (P₁ to P₁₀) to know the inheritance pattern of yield attributes. Analysis of variance exhibited highly significant differences among themselves for all the traits in all environments. The ratio of gca /sca was less than unity there by indicating the preponderance of non-additive gene effects in the expression of most of the characters studied. The parents  P₁ , P₂  and P₃   for grain  yield,  P₅  and P₈   for oil content,  P₆ , P₈  and P₉  for starch content and  P₇ ,  P₈  and  P₁₀   for protein content   were identified as most promising parents due to having good general combining ability.  Among the crosses significant and desirable sca effects P₃ × P₁ and P₃ × P₂ for grain yield, P₇ × P₄ and P₅ × P₉  for oil content, P₁ × P₃ and P₉ × P₅ for starch content and  P₉ × P₆  & P₈ × P₃   for protein content, respectively.  Therefore, these crosses could be utilized for further selection of high yielding and quality progenies to achieve a quantum jump in maize improvement.