Kambe Gouda R , Udaykumar Kage , H C Lohithaswa , B G  Shekara , D Shobha

University of Agricultural sciences, Dharwad, India
Author    Correspondence author
Molecular Plant Breeding, 2013, Vol. 4, No. 14   doi: 10.5376/mpb.2013.04.0014
Received: 06 May, 2013    Accepted: 17 May, 2013    Published: 22 May, 2013

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.

Gowda R et al., 2013, Combining Ability Studies in Maize (Zea Mays L.), Molecular Plant Breeding, 2013, Vol.3, No.14 116-127 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2013.03.0014)

The present study was conducted to assess the general combining ability effects of parents and specific combining ability effects of hybrids for yield and yield related traits and explore their use in hybrid development. 170 F1s generated by crossing thirty four lines with five testers were evaluated. The ratio of sca / gca variance revealed that there was preponderance of non additive gene action in the expression of all the traits under study. Inbred lines viz., MAI 708, MAI 109, MAI 111, MAI 121, Cymt 3 and Cymt 30 were good general combiners for yield and yield attributing characters. Tester CM 500 was high combiner for grain yield. Among the hybrids, MAI 109 X MAI 105, MAI 109 X CM 202, Cymt 30 X NAI 137, Cymt 3 X SKV 50 and Cymt 3 X CM 202 exhibited highest significant sca effects and high heterosis over checks for yield and yield attributing traits.

Maize (Zea Mays L.); sca/gca; Hybrids; Yield