Abstract

                                An experiment was conducted with eleven improved genotypes of pearlmillet of diverse origin were crossed in a diallel mating design that included reciprocals. Observations were recorded on six biometrical traits viz., days to 50 % flowering, plant height (cm), number of productive tillers, panicle length (cm), 100 grain weight (g) and grain yield (g) and five physiological traits viz., leaf area index (LAI), leaf area duration (LAD), specific leaf weight (SLW), net assimilation rate (NAR) and harvest index (HI). The F1 hybrids of 110 cross combinations and 11 parents were evaluated for genetic components of variation. The genetic components D, H1 and H2 were significant for all the biometrical and physiological traits except panicle length and grain yield which showed non significance to D components. The h2/H2 indicated that number of blocks of genes involved in the inheritance of both the traits were less than one for all the traits except plant height, number of productive tillers, panicle length and grain yield per plant. The graphical analysis of test of homogenity (t2) was non significant for all the traits and thus indicated that the data fulfilled the basic assumptions for diallel analysis. The regression coefficient (b) was significantly deviant from unity for the traits plant height, number of productive tillers, panicle length, leaf area duration and specific leaf weight. This revealed the presence of epistatic interaction for these traits

Key words : Pearl millet, diallel, genetic analysis and graphical analysis