Hybrid Vigour and Combining Ability for Yield and Quality Traits in Popcorn (Zea mays var. everta)

摘要

Ten popcorn inbred lines were crossed in half diallel fashion to obtain 45 F, hybrids, which were evaluated in complete randomized block design for grain yield and quality traits viz., popping expansion, grain moisture content, protein, starch and oilcontent In seed. The aim of the study was to identify superior inbred lines and hybrids for biochemical constituents, which are more important for human health as popcorn is mainly consumed as snacks. The inbred parents and hybrids under study are richin protein, starch, oil and performed better for popping expansion. The ANOVA of diallel analysis revealed the predominant role of non-additive gene action for inheritance of all the traits under study. The heterosis was bidirectional ranging from negative to positive for all the traits. The ranges of economic heterosis were -32.18 to 75.72% and -76.45 to 53.08% for grain yield and popping expansion, respectively. The combination, 1-07-42-1-2 x 1-07-42-6-3 showed higher level of heterosis, significant specific combining ability for grain yield, popping expansion and oil content. The hybrid, 1-07-63-1-2 x 1-07-63-36-1 revealed high magnitude of heterosis and positive specific combining ability for popping expansion. The parents, 1-07-43-7-3, 1-07-63-36-1 and 1-07-63-18-3 had recorded high per se and general combining ability for yield and majority of the characters studied. The breeding approaches like biparental mating followed by recurrent selection or diallel selective mating should be suggested forfurther improvement of grain yield and quality parameters.