Effect of isonuclear-alloplasmic cytoplasmic male sterility system on grain yield traits in pearl millet

M Pujar, M Govindaraj, S Gangaprasad, A Kanatti, 'Effect of isonuclear-alloplasmic cytoplasmic male sterility system on grain yield traits in pearl millet', Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding (TSI), vol. 79(1), pp.141-149, Indian Society of Genetics & Plant Breeding, 2019

Pearl millet is a nutri-cereal and is grown predominantly bysubsistence farmers in semi-arid regions of India and Africa.Considering it?s highly cross pollinated nature andavailability of cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS), hybrids havebecome a dominant cultivar type in India. Present studyaims to assess the effect of isonuclear alloplasmic A1, A4and A5 CMS on agronomic performance of pearl millethybrids. Five isogenic females each having 3 alloplasmic(A1, A4 and A5) cytoplasm were crossed with 6 male-parentsto generate 120 hybrids. All these were evaluated in twocontrasting seasons (E) in split-split-plot design. Thesignificant cytoplasm per se and restorer per se indicatethe both contribution to most of the traits, however, greatermagnitude of contribution arises from restorerssignificantly (75%grain yield; 95% 1000-grain weight). Thesignificant, hybrids x E shows the mandatory of multilocationtesting for yield traits while non-significant of CMS� E interaction reveals the greater stability of CMS. Further,non-significant mean yield differences exhibited in A1, A4and A5 hybrids (2.84-3.14 t ha?1) indicated no adverse effectof cytoplasm on grain yield and associated traits. Also,diverse genetic backgrounds used in this study displayedsignificant contributions to grain yield and its componenttraits. These results imply the prospects for utilization ofpotential alternative cytoplasm (A4 and A5) to widen thecytoplasm base together with development of counterpartrestorers to produce future high-yielding hybrids