Abstract

Genetic components and combining ability analyses of various physiological traits were carried out by using seven parents diallel mating design excluding reciprocals. Results revealed that both additive and non-additive gene effects were important for the inheritance of characters studied with preponderance of latter for all traits, except plant height and harvest index in both F, and F, generations. The significance of gene distribution indicated the presence of gene asymmetry. At least one major group of genes controlled the inheritance of each trait. High narrow-sense heritability further suported the importance of additive gene effects for harvest index and plant height. NDR 359, Sarjoo 52, Mahsuri, T 21 and Jal Lahari were good general combiners. The promising cross combinations were NDR 359/Jal Lahari, NDR 359/T 21, Mahsuri/ T 21, Sarjoo 52/NDR 359 and Sarjoo 52/T 21. Since non-additive/dominance components were higher than the additive for all the characters in both F, and F, generations, therefore, biparental mating and/or reciprocal recurrent selection could be used for genetic improvement of these characters.

Keywords: Physiological traits, additive and non-additive gene effects, heritability, dominance.