Electronic Journal of Plant Breeding (Jun 2013)
Combining ability analysis for yield and yield attributing traits in Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.) Hybrids
Abstract
Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn) 2n = 4x = 36, belongs to the tribe Chloridae of the family Poaceae. Finger millet is commonly called as “nutritious millet” as the grains are nutritiously superior to many cereals providing fair amount of protein, minerals, calcium and vitamins in abundance to the people. In the present investigation, seven female lines were crossed with three testers during rabi 2009-2010 and the resultant twenty one hybrids along with their parents were utilized for combining analysis during kharif 2010. Data were recorded for yield and yield contributing agronomic characters in each entry throughout the replications and mean values were subjected to line x tester analysis. The genotypes were found highly significant for all the traits which indicated that the treatments used in this study were significantly varied from each other. The ratio of gca and sca variances were found to be less than unity for all the characters indicating the predominance of non-additive gene action in the control of these traits. The estimates of gca effects indicated that all female parents and among males K 7 and KM 252 were good general combiners for grain yield per plant. High sca effects were observed in the crosses CO(Ra) 14 X PR 202, CO(Ra) 14 X K 7, RAU 8 X KM 252, RAU 8 X K 7 , VR 708 X KM 252 and OEB 259 X PR 202 and they were found to be the best combinations for grain yield per plant and quality traits
