Study of Gene Effects for Stalk Sugar Yield and Its Component Traits in Sweet Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] Using Generation Mean Analysis

Abstract

Generation mean analysis was carried out to estimate the nature and<br />magnitude of gene effects for sugar yield and its component traits in sweet sorghum<br />[Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench. Six basic generations, namely P1, P2, F1, F2,<br />BC1P1, BC1P2 of four crosses involving seven diverse parents were evaluated in<br />rainy 2009. The mean performance of the F1 in all the crosses indicated dominant<br />gene effect for all the characters. Simple additive-dominance model indicated<br />presence of epistatic interaction. High positive additive × additive interaction effects<br />were found in all the crosses. Higher magnitude of dominance and dominance ×<br />dominance gene interactions which were found minimizes the expression of<br />heterosis leading to non-exploitation of crosses with duplicate epistasis. Reciprocal<br />recurrent selection and/or biparental mating in early segregating generations has<br />been suggested for development of high sugar yielding genotypes in view of the<br />genotypes studied.