Heterobeltiosis and inbreeding depression in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

Abstract

The extent of heterosis of depends generally on the magnitude of non-additive gene action and wide genetic diversity among parents. However, there is report that in self pollinated crops, crosses with high heterosis associated with high magnitude of additive gene effects give better segregants [1 ].The present investigation was carried out with six generations viz., Pl , P2, Fl , F2, BCl and BC2 generated from three crosses of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) i.e., RD 2503 x BL 2, Rajkiran x IBVT 12 and RD 2508 x RD 2052. All the six generations were grown at Agriculture Research Station. Bikaner in randomized block design with three replications during rabi 2003. The parents, Fl s and backcross generations were grown in single row whereas each F2 generation was raised in four rows, each row was two meters long accommodating 20 plants spaced 10cm apart and row to row distance was 25 cm. The data were scored for ten yield and associated traits viz., days to heading, flag leaf area, plant height, number of effective tillers per plant, number of grains per spike, 1000-grain weight, biological yield per plant, harvest index and grain yield per plant, on individual plant basis on five randomly selected plants in Pl' P2' F1 and 10 plants in backcrosses and 20 plants in F2 generations. Heterobeltiosis and inbreeding depression was calculated as per standard procedure [2].