AN INVESTIGATION ON HETEROSIS, GENERAL AND SPECIFIC COMBINING ABILITY FOR POD YIELD AND ITS CONTRIBUTING PARAMETERS IN

The heterosis and combining ability studies were conducted by utilizing modified Line X Tester mating design involving 6 Lines and 9 testers of Okra [Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench]. The breeding material involving fifty four F 1 hybrids along with 15 parents with one commercial check were evaluated during Kharif 2020 in a Randomized Block Design (R.B.D.) with three replications at Research Centre of Goldking Biogene Private Limited with an aim to estimate the magnitude of heterosis and to identify the good parents and good hybrid combinations for pod yield and other quantitative traits. Among the parents GKOF-1, GKOF-5 and GOM-7 were found to be good general combiners for pod yield per plot. Among the lines GKOF-3, GKOF-4 and GKOF-6 and testers GKOM-4, GKOM-5, per se for pod yield per Further the cross GKOF-1 X GKOM-7, X GKOM-9 and GKOF-6 GKOM-4 revealed highest positively significant sca effects for pod yield per plot. For number of pods per plot the heterobeltiosis ranged from -45.87 to 56.97%. The highest positive significant heterobeltiosis was recorded by GKOF-6 X GKOM-7 (156.97%) followed by GKOF-1 X GKOM-7 (124.42%) and GKOF-6 X GKOM-2 (104.76%). As far the heterosis over commercial check Himani-11 is concerns, the highest significant positive heterosis was exhibited by GKOF-6 X GKOM-2 (43.33%) followed by GKOF-6 X GKOM-7 (41.33%) and GKOF-5 X GKOM-4 (38.33%). The highest positive and significant heterobeltiosis for pod yield per plant was exhibited by GKOF-6 X GKOM-7 (93.55%) followed by GKOF-4 X GKOM-7 (74.89%) and GKOF-3 X GKOM-2 (70.65%). The highest significant positive heterosis was exhibited by GKOF-6 X GKOM-7 (23.17%) followed by GKOF-4 X GKOM-7 (20.53%) and GKOF-1 X GKOM-8 (15.25%). The heterobeltiosis for days to 50% flowering was highest negative significant found in GKOF-1 X GKOM-8 (-20.54%) followed by GKOF-5 X GKOM-5 (-12.87%) and GKOF-5 X GKOM-9 (-12.87%). The economic heterosis was observed the highest and negatively significant in cross GKOF-5 X GKOM-4 (-14.29%) followed by GKOF-5 X GKOM-3 (-11.22%) and GKOF-5 X GKOM-5 (-10.20%). The cross combination GKOF-5 X GKOM-7


ISSN: 2320-5407
Int. J. Adv. Res. 9(08), 334-341 335 characters and the inheritance pattern of economic traits along with identification of the good parents to be utilized in the future breeding programme.
General and specific combining ability helps to identify the good parents in terms of their genetic value, selection of suitable parents for hybridization and identification of superior cross combinations, which may be utilized for commercial exploitation of heterosis.
Hence an investigation was carried out with an objective of assessing the per se performance of parents and their hybrids for economically important characters, estimate the magnitude of the GCA and SCA variances and their effect on various traits, to understand the nature of gene action for yield and its component characters and also obtain information on the extent of heterosis to ascertain superior hybrid combination for quantitative.

Material and Methods:
The study on heterosis and combining ability was undertaken at Goldking Research Centre, Goldking Biogene Pvt., Ltd., located at. Idar, Di. Sabarkantha, Gujarat, INDIA during Kharif 2020-21. The experimental material was developed by crossing 6 Lines and 9 Testers. All the breeding material involving 54 F 1 hybrids, 15 parents along with one commercial check Himani-11 were planted utilizing a modified Line x Tester mating design in a Randomized Block Design (R.B.D.) having three replications. Each treatment in each replication was represented by 20 plants at a spacing of 60 x 30 cm. and five plants were randomly selected from each genotype for recording the observations. Data were recorded on different characters such as pod yield/plot (g.), number of pods/plot, pod yield/plant, days to 50% flowering, plant height (cm), average pod weight (g), average pod length (cm) and average pod girth (mm). The observed values were subjected to Line × Tester analysis and the general combining ability effects of parents and specific combining ability effects of different crosses were worked out. The combining ability analysis was carried out on the basis of methods developed by Kempthorne (1957). The variances and the corresponding standard errors of the mean were computed from the deviations of the individual values (Panse and Sukhatme, 1978).
On an overall analysis of gca effects of all the parents for pod yield and other quantitative characters it seems that the lines GKOF-1, GKOF-2, GKOF-3 and GKOF-5 and testers GKOM-4, GKOM-5, GKOM-7 and GKOM-8 are very good general combiners for almost all the traits which revealed by their inclusion for gca effects as far as descending order of genetic influence is concerned. It shows that the concerned characters are predominantly governed by the additive gene action. Hence there is a great scope and genetic potential among these parents to be utilized in exploitation and for harnessing maximum of their combing ability to produce better hybrids in future okra breeding research programme.
For pod yield per plot a total of 43 crosses out of 54 showed the positive sca effects and out of these 20 crosses recorded significant sca effect. The cross GKOF-1XGKOM-7(5.23) showed the highest positive and significant sca effects followed by GKOF-4XGKOM-9(4.55) and GKOF-6XGKOM-7(4.10) as shown in Table- From over all observations of gca effects for these all quantitative characters it is clear that good general combiner parents were involved in exhibiting the highest significant positive heterosis. As far as the mean performance of crosses is concerned the investigation indicated that good general combiners were responsible for high phenotypic values in many crosses. In the same context it seems that the lines GKOF-3, 4 and 6 and the testers GKOM-4, 5, 7, 8 and 9 were directly involved in acquiring the highest positive and significant sca effects for all the six characters.