Duggempudi Venkata Ramana
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Lam, Guntur 522 034, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Chikkappa Gangadhar Karjagi
Crop Improvement, Regional Maize Research and Seed Production Centre, ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research, Vishnupur, Begusarai 851 129, Bihar, India.
Adala Vishnuvardhan Reddy
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Lam, Guntur 522 034, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Kondajji Rangappa Yathish
Crop Improvement, Winter Nursery Centre, ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research, Rajendra Nagar, Hyderabad 500 030, Telangana, India.
Mudunuri Ramabhadra Raju
Department of Plant Pathology, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Lam, Guntur 522 034, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Padherla Lavanya Kumari
Department of Statistics and Computer Applications, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Lam, Guntur 522 034, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Harleen Kaur
Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, AICRP (Maize), Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana 141 004, Punjab, India.
Srabani Debnath
Department of Plant Pathology, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia 741 252, West Bengal, India.
Rajesh Pratap Singh
Department of Plant Pathology, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Udham Singh Nagar, Pantnagar 263 145, Uttarakhand, India.
Parime Bharat Chandra
Department of Plant Pathology, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Lam, Guntur 522 034, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Robin Gogoi
Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa Campus, New Delhi 110 012, Delhi, India.
Karambir Singh Hooda
Division of Germplasm Evaluation, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Pusa Campus, New Delhi 110 012, Delhi, India.
Omkar Kumar
Crop Improvement, Regional Maize Research and Seed Production Centre, ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research, Vishnupur, Begusarai 851 129, Bihar, India.
Jyoti Kumari
Division of Germplasm Evaluation, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Pusa Campus, New Delhi 110 012, Delhi, India.
Sherry Rachel Jacob
Division of Germplasm Conservation, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Pusa Campus, New Delhi 110 012, Delhi, India.
Sushil Pandey
Division of Germplasm Evaluation, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Pusa Campus, New Delhi 110 012, Delhi, India.
Sujay Rakshit
ICAR-Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Ranchi 834 003, Jharkhand, India.
Abstract
Twelve maize inbred lines, differing for resistance to BLSB were crossed in a half-diallel mating design and the F1s were evaluated during Kharif-2023, at Delhi and Peddapuram. The combining ability of these inbred lines for BLSB resistance under artificial inoculation and grain yield in artificial and natural conditions was assessed. The ANOVA revealed highly significant GCA variances (P<0.01) for grain yield in both conditions as well as for BLSB disease scores, indicating additive genetic variance of both traits. In addition, crosses and SCA effects also showed significant variances for both traits suggesting the presence of sufficient variability among half-diallel crosses and non-additive genetic variance. Notably, the mean squares for GCA in BLSB disease resistance were much higher than those for SCA, indicating that additive genetic effects predominantly contributed to disease resistance. The results indicate that the selection for BLSB resistance under artificial epiphytotic conditions at hotspot locations would be effective in breeding programs. P5 and P7 were the most desirable inbreds for developing high-yielding, BLSB-resistant hybrids due to their higher magnitude of positive GCA effects for grain yield and higher magnitude of negative GCA effects for BLSB disease. P4×P12, P5×P7, P6×P12, and P6×P1 exhibited significant negative SCA effects for BLSB resistance and significant positive SCA effects for grain yield under artificial inoculation conditions, making them promising combinations for further breeding programs.
