For the improvement of quantitative traits in cowpea, selection of parents, making cross combination and selecting better transgressive segregants require knowledge of various gene action that’s why this study employed a six-parameter model to determine the significance of grain yield per plant and its constituent characteristics in two crosses, including both additive and dominant gene effects. The dominant gene action has a larger magnitude than the additive gene effect. In the cross NCK-13-11 × NCK-15-09, clusters per plant, pods per plant, seeds per pod, pod length, 100 seed weight, harvest index and protein content were found significantly impacted by additive × additive gene interaction among epistasis; similarly, plant height, clusters per plant, seeds per pod and 100 seed weight were found significantly impacted in the cross NCK-13-11 × GC-3. With the exception of plant height, branches per plant and harvest index in the cross NCK-13-11 × NCK-15-09 and reproductive phase duration, branches per plant, clusters per plant, pods per plant, pod length, grain yield per plant and harvest index in the cross NCK-13-11 × GC-3, dominance × dominance component contributed significantly in both the crosses. Non-allelic interactions, in addition to additive and dominant components, were important in determining the different cowpea characteristics. There was no evidence of complimentary gene interaction in any of the studied attributes. Cowpea's many characteristics were determined by non-allelic interactions in addition to additive and dominant components. It would be difficult for the breeder to produce possible segregants that are superior than the involved parents in this sort of situation by employing standard breeding approaches, such as making straightforward crosses and taking advantage of them through the direct pedigree approach. for improvement of cowpea, transgressive segregants can be produced by biparental mating system.

Generation mean analysis, scaling tests, generations, gene actions

In a nutshell, non-allelic interactions were important in determining the numerous features of cowpea, along with additive and dominant components. The majority of the traits exhibiting digenic interaction were shown to depend heavily on duplicate gene activity. In this kind of scenario, it would be challenging for the breeder to use traditional breeding techniques, such creating straightforward crossings and using the straight pedigree approach to exploit them, to obtain potential segregants that are superior to the involved parents. Breeding procedure involving multiple crosses, biparental crosses may be restores to get transgressive segregants. This is especially important to develop good pure lines having superiority in different characters.

K.S. Mungra, P.A. Vavdiya, Y.V. Naghera, D.A. Chauhan and M.R. Prajapati (2023). Genetic Analysis for Yield and other Important Characters Related to Yield in Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.). Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(11): 533-536.