Abstract

Seventy five F, hybrids produced in a line x tester mating fashion, their 15 lines and five testers were evaluated in two environments to study combining ability for nine yield and related traits in pea. Additive gene action contributed significantly in the inheritance of days to flowering, days to maturity, plant height and seed weight while nonadditive gene action prevailed in the inheritance of pods per plant, seeds per pod, seed yield per plant, biological yield per plant and harvest index. LMR 20 emerged as the most promising parent for seed yield per plant and related traits; Alaska 81 for early flowering: Pusa 10 for early maturity, dwarfness and seed weight; LMR 20 for pods per plant and biological yield per plant. Garifield for seeds per pod and PI 280064 for harvest index were the best general combiners for respective traits. The cross HUP 1 x Pusa 10 was most outstanding hybrid as it exhibited high SCA effect and heterosis over better parent. The correlation coefficient r between the GCA effects and mean of parents was significantly correlated for most of the characters. Implications of genotype x environment interaction on combining ability has been discussed.

Keywords: Pea, Line x tester, Combining ability