Heterosis and combining ability studies in extra long staple inter-specific (G. hirsutum x G. barbadense) hybrids of cotton

• Main Authors: K.P.M. Dhamayanthi and, K. Rathinavel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Indian Society of Plant Breeders 2017-06-01
• Series: Electronic Journal of Plant Breeding
• Subjects: gossypium; heterosis; fibre qualities; extra-long staple; inter-specific hybrids
• Online Access: http://ejplantbreeding.org/index.php/EJPB/article/view/1540

Forty nine inter-specific crosses were made using two tetraploid cotton species viz., Gossypium hirsutum (seven) and G. barbadense (seven). Heterosis over better parent and standard check were estimated for yield and yield related characters in these inter-specific F1 hybrids. The variance due to GCA and SCA were highly significant for all the characters studied. It reveals that both additive and non additive gene effects were responsible for the traits under study. Among the females BRS-53-53 and CCH-510-4 were found to be good general combiner for boll per plant and seed cotton yield. Amongst the male parents, ICB-260 and Pima S4 were found to be the best general combiner on the basis of seed cotton yield and it’s per se performance while, B4 was the best for the most of the yield components. The present study reveals that for improving seed cotton yield BRS-53-53 and CCH-510-4 could serve as good parents. The crosses involved with B4 and Pima S4 can be exploited to improve the fibre qualities such as 2.5% span length, tenacity and fibre fineness. Five crosses were identified as the best crosses on the basis of per se performance, combining ability and heterosis. The hybrids viz., BRS-53-53 x B4, BRS-53-53 x ICB-260, CCH-510-4 x ICB-260 and CCH-724 x B4 showed significant positive standard heterosis as well as heterobeltiosis for seed cotton yield, number of bolls per plant and boll weight.