Abstract

Study on nature of gene action in pigeonpea for quantitative characters in sets of two crosses revealed the presence of additive gene action for all the characters except number of secondary branches in one cross. Among the interaction effects, additive x additive and additive x dominance interactions were found to play a major role than dominance x dominance interaction. Duplicate type of epistasis was observed for all the traits except for number of secondary branches and days to 50 per cent maturity. Varying nature of gene action from cross to cross indicated that reciprocal recurrent selection will be the suitable breeding programme for further improvement.

Keywords: Pigeonpea, Yield, Yield Components, Gene Action