Combining Ability Studies for Yield and Its Related Traits in Newly Derived Inbred Lines of Maize (Zea Mays L.)  

Udaykumar kage1 , Wali M.C.2 , Deepa Madalageri1 , Laxman Malakannavar3 , Prakash Gangashetty2
1. Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka-05, India
2. AICRP on Maize, Arabhavi, UAS Dharwad, India
3. Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK Bangaluru, Karnataka-05, India
Author    Correspondence author
Molecular Plant Breeding, 2013, Vol. 4, No. 8   doi: 10.5376/mpb.2013.04.0008
Received: 28 Jan., 2013    Accepted: 04 Feb., 2013    Published: 12 Feb., 2013
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This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:

Udaykumar K., et al., 2013, Combining ability studies for yield and its related traits in newly derived inbred lines of maize (Zea mays L.), Molecular Plant Breeding, Vol.4, No.8 71-76 (doi: 10.5376/mpb.2013.04.0008)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to study the Combining ability in newly derived lines involving line x tester analysis with ten lines and three testers at All India Co-ordinated Maize Improvement Project, Agricultural Research Station, Arabhavi, UAS, Dharwad. The results revealed that among ten female lines, L2 is the best general combiner for plant height, ear height, ear length, 100-grain weight, grain yield per hectare and fodder yield per hectare. Whereas, among thirty crosses, L8×T3 is the best specific combination for plant height, ear height and grain yield per hectare.

Keywords
Maize (Zea Mays L.); Line x tester; Combining ability

Maize is one of the staple food crops globally. In world, it ranks third in production next to wheat and husked rice and ranks second next to wheat, if dehusked rice is considered and covering nearly 22% of world area. It belongs to the family Poaceae and the tribe Maydeae. It is known as “King of crops”, because of its industrial value and larger acreage and there is no cereal on the earth which has so immense potentiality and that is why is called “Queen of Cereals”.

In heterosis breeding programme, the selection of parents/inbreds based on their combining ability is very important in producing superior hybrids. The analysis of general combining ability and specific combining ability helps in identifying potential parents/inbreds for the production of superior hybrids. The line×tester analysis (Kempthorne, 1957) is one of the simplest and efficient methods of evaluating large number of inbreds/parents for their combining ability. The total number of crosses is equal to the product of the number of lines and the number of testers included in the study.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of nine maize inbred lines derived from the material of tropical origins. These promising lines were never appeared to be tested before for their breeding potential per se in specific combinations (SCA) and their overall performance in crosses (GCA). These lines would be a valuable source of germplasm to enhance hybrid grain yield in Karnataka.
Results and Discussion
Variance due to females, males and female×male interaction in respect to 13 quantitative traits are presented in Table 1. The variance due to female was highly significant for most of the traits under study indicating sufficient variability and variances due to male were highly significant for days to 50% silking and non significant for remaining traits. This indicates that the male and female lines would contribute to the final yield trait indirectly through the yield contributing traits. The female×male interaction variance was highly significant for plant height, ear height, ear length, no of kernels per row, grain yield per hectare and shelling percentage. This implies that the divergence of testers from lines with respect to these characters.

 
Table 1 Analysis of variance for combining ability for 13 different characters

Among the ten parents studied, the parental lines L1 was best general combiner for plant height, ear height, ear girth, 100-grain weight, grain yield per hectare and fodder yield per hectare. L2 was best general combiner for plant height, ear height, ear length, 100-grain weight, grain yield per hectare and fodder yield per hectare. L7 was found to be best general combiner for ear length, 100-grain weight, grain yield per hectare and shelling percentage. Days to 50% silking, plant height, ear height, days to 50% brown husk maturity and shelling percentage for these characters L8 showed significant general combining ability effects and parent L10 can be given the status of best general combiner for majority of the characters like ear height, no. of kernel rows per ear, shelling percentage and fodder yield per hectare. Hence these parents can be better utilized for the improvement of the characters for which the parents showed significant gca effects (Table 2).
Table 2 General combining ability (gca) effects of parents in respect of 13 characters

Out of thirty hybrids/crosses, six hybrids have shown significant sca effects for the grain yield per hectare viz., L2×T1, L4×T1, L6×T3, L7×T1,L8×T3 and L9×T2. The crosses, L1×T2, L3×T1 and L8×T3 for plant height and ear height (Paul and Debnath., 1999; Zelleke., 2000), and for ear length (Kumar., 1971) the crosses like, L1×T3 and L8×T1 and for no. of kernel rows per ear (Premalata et al.,2011) L10×T1 were the best specific combinations. It was clear that these hybrids were the combinations of either both the parents as good general combiners or one of the parents as good general combiner for grain yield character (Table 3).

 
Table 3 Specific combining ability (sca) effects of single cross experimental hybrids in respect of 13 characters

In brief overall results from present investigation revealed that the parents, L1, L2, L7, L8 and L10 were considered to be an best general combiners and of the 30 hybrids L2×T1, L1×T2 and L8×T3 were found to be good specific combination for grain yield and its contributing traits like plan height, ear height, ear length and no. of kernel rows per cob and it was suggested that they could be exploited by production of single cross hybrids in realizing the higher yields.
Materials and Methods
The present investigation was carried out at All India Co-ordinated Maize Improvement Project, Agricultural Research Station, Arabhavi during the year 2011 (kharif) and 2011-2012 (rabi). The parents used in the experiment comprised of ten lines selected from newly derived 79 inbred lines of tropical origin which were available in All India Co-ordinated Maize Improvement Project, based on their per se performance. These lines were used as female lines and crossed with three tester’s viz., KDMI-10, KDMI-16 and CI-5. All the thirty F1 hybrids along with their parental lines were grown in the following growing season. Trials were irrigated throughout the growing season and cultural operations, fertilization, and weed control were accomplished according to normal field practices. The experiment was replicated twice in a randomized complete block design. The experimental unit was two rows for each entry, 4 m long and 75 cm apart, with plant to plant distance of 20 cm. The observations were recorded from five plants randomly selected from each plot for 13 quantitative traits viz., days to 50% tasseling, days to 50% silking, plant height, ear height, days to 75% brown husk maturity, ear length, ear girth, number of kernel rows per cob, number of kernels per row, 100-grain weight, grain yield per hectare, shelling percentage and fodder yield per hectare.
References
Kempthorne O., 1957, An Introduction to Genetic Statistics, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, pp. 545
Kumar S., 1971, Evaluation of nine maize varieties for inter varietal hybridization, Madras Agril. J., 58: 92-97
Paul K.K. and Debanth S.C., 1999, Combining ability analysis in maize (Zea mays L.), Pakistan J. Scientific Industrial Res., 42(3): 141-144
Premlatha M., Kalamani A., and Nirmalakumari A., 2011, Heterosis and combining ability for grain yield and quality in maize (Zea Mays L.), Adv. Environ. Biol., 5(6): 1264-1266
Zelleke H., 2000, Combining ability for grain yield and other agronomic characters in inbred lines of maize (Zea mays L.), Indian J. Genet. Plant Breed., 60: 63-67