GENERAL AND SPECIFIC COMBINING ABILITY ANALYSIS FOR GRAIN YIELD IN MAIZE USING DIALLEL CROSS

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the general combining ability of parents and specific combining ability of hybrids, heterobeltiosis and also the genetic behavior for characters (number of ears per plant, ear length, ear diameter, number of rows per ear, number of grains per ear, number of grains per plant, 100 grain weight and grain yield per plant) in the population obtained by half diallel cross among pure lines of maize IK8, ZP-301, ZP-707, UN44052, OH40 and HS. The fifteen F1 and six parents were planted at Farm of College of Agriculture and Forestry through spring season, 2012 using randomized complete block design with three replications. The results showed that mean square of genotypes was highly significant for all studied characters. Analysis of variance according method 2 of Griffing revealed that mean square of general and specific combining abilities was highly significant for all characters indicated the presence of additive as well as non additive gene effects for controlling these characters. However, the ratio between components of general and specific combining ability was less than one, indicated that dominance gene effects were more prominent for all the characters. Parents ZP-301, UN44052 and OH40 characterized by significant desirable general combining ability effects for all characters, and the hybrids (IK8 x ZP-707) and (ZP-301 x UN44052) showed significant desirable specific characters for all characters. and could be exploited for hybrid vigor. Heterobeltiosis shown for all studied characters by hybrids (IK8 x ZP-707), (IK8 x OH40) and (ZP-301 x UN44052), accordingly hybrids with good performance can be used in the development of varieties with high productivity