Studying variation of multi-ovary and yield contributing traits using line X tester analysis

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is the king of cereals and major food crop in Pakistan. The primary aim in crop improvement is to boost the yield. Multi-ovary one of the novel trait in wheat could be useful to increase yield. This research work was conducted ·to determine combining ability of parents and crosses for yield contributing traits especially for multi-ovary trait along with yield in the experimental fields of the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics. Line x tester analysis was used to evaluate five multi-ovary lines viz. L1, L2, L3, L4 and L5 and four testers viz. Galaxy-2013, Aas-2011, PBW-222 and 9505. In field these genotypes along with their 20 crosses were sown using triplicated randomized complete block design. Analysis of variance indicated highly significant differences among the genotypes for 10 characters directly related to yield. The results of line x tester analysis when partitioned into various components also exhibited significant to highly significant differences. The line L3 proved to be best on the basis of mean performance for different traits like plant height, flag leaf area, number of spikelet spike-1, number of grains floret-1, number of grains spike-1 and grain weight spike-1. Considering the testers, the variety Aas-11 performed best for almost all traits. The important crosses L1 x Aas-11, L1 x Glaxay-13, L2 x Glaxay-13, L3 x Aas-11, L4 x Glaxay-13, L1 x 9505, L3 x 9505 and L5 x Glaxay-13 were best for yield components. In case of general combining ability (GCA) the female parent L4 illustrated positive GCA for traits like number of grains floret-1, number of grains spike-1 and grain weight spike-1 and genotype L5 revealed positive GCA for 1000-grain weight and yield per plant. Among testers Glaxay-13 exhibited positive GCA for most of the traits. The cross combinations L3 x Aas-11 for number of grains spikelet-1, L5 x Glaxay-13 for number of grains floret-1, L1 x 9505 for No. of grains spike-1 exhibited highest positive specific combing ability (SCA) whereas, the hybrid L3 x 9505 for grain weight spike-1 and grain yield per plant and L4 x PBW-222 for 1000-grain weight. These genotypes could be included as promising parents in the future breeding program and crosses like L1 x 9505, L3 x Aas-11, L5 x Glaxay-13, L3 x 9505 and L4 x PBW-222 can be exploited in further generations for improvement in stability of number of grains spike-1 of multi-ovary wheat.