Genetic studies for inheritance pattern of morphological indices of yield in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the world leading cereals. It is the main source of food all over the world so called as king of the cereals. The present study was conducted to estimate the gene action and inheritance pattern of morphological indices of yield in a complete diallel fashion using six diverse bread wheat genotypes viz., 9779, 9780, 9781, 9782, Galaxy-13 and Aas-11. The thirty hybrids along with their parents were sown in the field area of Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of agriculture, Faisalabad during 2015-16 cropping season using randomized complete block design with three replicates. Traits under consideration were plant height, fertile tillers per plant, flag leaf area, peduncle length, spike length, number of spikelets per spike, spike density, number of seeds per spike, 1000 seed weight, seed yield per plant seed weight per spike, biomass per spike and harvest index per spike which were significant. Analysis of variance results depicted the high significance for all traits except biomass per spike among all genotypes. When combining ability partitioned into GCA and SCA effects, for GCA all the traits were highly significant rather than fertile tillers per plant which was significant and number of grains per spike was non-significant. For SCA all genotypes were showing high significant differences for all traits except significant results for fertile tillers per plant and non-significant results for spike length, spike density and biomass· of the spike. The SCA variance was greater than GCA variance expressing the importance of the non-additive type of gene action for the inheritance pattern of the concerned yield indices. Estimates of general combining ability revealed that the genotype 9781 proved to be best general combiner and can be used in future breeding program to obtain desirable combinations. The cross combinations 9781 x 9782 and 9782 x Galaxy-13 proved as best specific combiners as well as Galaxy-13 x 9780 and 9781 x 9782 were best reciprocal crosses, 9780 x 9782 showing best mid parent heterosis for peduncle length and number of grains per spike. These crosses showed superiority and could be further studied for future breeding program.