Vol. 10, Issue 10 (2021)

Author(s):
Awnish Kumar, Ravi Shankar Singh, Chandan Kishore, Mankesh Kumar, Tushar Ranjan, Jyoti Kumari, Digvijay Singh and Shubham Chakraborty

Abstract:
An experiment was conducted for the study of heterosis and combining ability in Indian mustard, (Brassica juncea L.) using 7×7 half diallel mating design along with their parents. Data were recorded for eleven quantitative characters. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of design of experiment showed significant differences between all the treatments for all the characters, indicating that sufficient variability were present among the treatments for all the characters studied. The results of ANOVA for combining ability showed that, the variances due to general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) were significant for all the character except days to maturity (for SCA variance only). Results revealed operation of both additive and non-additive gene action with preponderance of non-additive gene action for most of the traits except days to fifty per cent flowering, days to maturity and plant height. Among the seven parents, two parents namely Varuna and RAURD 14-18 showed significant positive GCA effects for seed yield per plant. On the basis of SCA effects the best cross combinations selected for seed yield per plant were RAURD 14-18 × RAURD-214, RAURD14-18 × JD-6 and VARUNA × RGN-73. Whereas, cross combinations RGN-73 × RAURD-214 (-2.54), VARUNA × JD-6 (-2.13) and KRANTI × RAURD-214 (-2.06) were identified superior for earliness and days to maturity. For seed yield per plant, the only cross combination RAURD 14-18 × RAURD-214 was identified as the best heterotic cross for all three types of heterosis, estimated over best check NRCHB-101. Hence, the result may suggested that the female parent of best heterotic cross combination, may be converted into CMS line and male as restorer line for its commercial exploitation after re-examining the CMS effect on the identified performance.