Exploitation of Heterosis for Yield and Yield Components in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Author: Shubham Kumawat, Aarti Sharma, Arvind Kumar, Mayur Roshan Sahoo, Hemant Kumar Jaiswal and Sunita Choudhary

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Abstract

The yield of the semi-dwarf wheat varieties hits a plateau which can be due to the restricted exploitation of the gene pool. Heterosis breeding provides ways to overcome yield barriers. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate heterosis for grain yield and its components in the F1 generation of wheat using Line × Tester analysis. A total of 79 genotypes, consisting of 22 parents (3 testers + 19 lines) and 57 crosses (F1s), were grown in a Randomized Block Design with three replications. The percent heterosis over mid-parent and better parent was calculated for yield and yield components. The majority of crosses exhibited significant positive average heterosis and heterobeltiosis for yield and important yield attributing traits, showing the dominant nature of genes with a positive effect. Additionally, several crosses showed promising heterotic behaviour with negative heterosis for maturity-related attributes, indicating the dominance of genes with negative effects for these traits. The hybrids Atilla × HUWL-1723 and HUW-234 × DBW were found to be superior hybrids selected for grain yield since these crosses displayed significant positive heterosis over both the better and mid-parent for grain yield.

Keywords

Wheat, Heterosis, Heterobeltiosis, Line ×Tester, Yield, Dominance

Conclusion

The current study found that the majority of crosses had positive significant average heterosis and heterobeltiosis for yield and key yield attributing traits, implying the dominance nature of genes with a positive effect. Furthermore, a number of crosses displayed favourable heterotic behaviour with negative heterosis for maturity-related attributes, indicating that the genes with negative effects were dominant for these characters. Thus, it can be concluded that the hybrids namely Atilla × HUWL-1723 and HUW-234 × DBW-were found to be superior hybrids selected for grain yield since these crosses exhibited significant positive heterosis over both the better and mid parent for grain yield.

References

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How to cite this article

Shubham Kumawat, Aarti Sharma, Arvind Kumar, Mayur Roshan Sahoo, Hemant Kumar Jaiswal and Sunita Choudhary (2023). Exploitation of Heterosis for Yield and Yield Components in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(2): 938-943.