Heterosis for yield and physiological traits in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)
Abstract
Chickpea being a highly self pollinated crop, the scope for exploitation of hybrid vigour will depend on the direction and magnitude of heterosis, biological feasibility and the type of gene action involved. The present investigation was carried out to study heterosis for yield and physiological attributes in chickpea utilising 21F1s and seven parents from a 7 x 7 diallel set of crosses during rabi 2011-12 at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Nandyal - 518 502, A.P., India. Crosses NBeG-3 x Vihar, JG-11 x Vihar and ICCV 05106 x Vihar exhibited significant heterosis for days to first flowering and days to maturity in desirable negative direction. For yield and yield attributes viz., number of branches per plant, number of pods per plant JG-11 x ICCV 05106, JG-11 x KAK-2 and ICCV 05106 x Vihar recorded significantly higher per se performance and heterosis over mid parent and better parent. MNK-1 x KAK-2 recorded significantly higher mid parental heterosis and heterobeltosis for physiological attributes like shoot biomass per plant, harvest index and root length. Hence, these promising crosses could be utilized in future breeding programmes for improving earliness, seed yield and drought tolerance in chickpea.
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