Genetic analysis of grain yield, days to flowering and maturity in oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) using diallel crosses

Abstract

Twenty one F2 progenies derived from a 7×7 diallel crosses along with parents were evaluated for grain yield, flowering and maturity time. Due to significant genotypic effects for all traits, genetic analyses were performed on F2 progenies including analyses of combining ability and genetic components. The Analysis of variance revealed that both additive and non-additive genetic effects were involved in controlling these traits. GCA/SCA ratios were 0.91 for days to flowering, 0.95 for days to maturity and 0.83 for grain yield which indicated that the additive gene effects were more important than non-additive gene effects for all these traits. Narrow-sense heritability was high for days to flowering (73.12%) and days to maturity (81.99%) and low for grain yield (30.15%). Heterosis in hybrids seemed to be largely determined by complementary epistasis as well as genetic distance between the parents. The spring-type varieties Tower and Regent appeared as the best parents for earliness whereas winter-type varieties D.R. and Ceres were best parents for high grain yield. It could be concluded from the study that S1 recurrent selection would be effective to improve the performance of these genotypes for grain yield, flowering and maturity time. The selected S1 lines from each cycle can be used in a pedigree-breeding program to identify superior genotypes.