Study on Combining Ability for Yield and Yield Contributing Characters of Short Statured Maize Inbred Lines at over Locations

Abstract

Twenty short-statured maize inbred lines were collected from CIMMYT India and Mexico through the Plant Breeding Division, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Gazipur. The experiment was conducted from November 2020 to April 2021 in three different agroecological regions such as BARI, Gazipur, RARS Barisal and RARS Rangpur. Seven inbred lines were selected on the basis of genetic diversity and per se performance and they were crossed separately in a 7 × 7 half diallel fashion, producing 21F 1 hybrids in 2019 which were evaluated at three locations. However, variances due to GCA were much higher in magnitude than SCA for all the characters indicating preponderance of additive gene effects on the inheritance of these characters. Two parents viz., P 3 (CML33) and P 4 (CML41) were good general combiners and two crosses viz., P 4 × P 5 (CML41 × CML31) and P 5 × P 7 (CML31 × CML124) expressed significant positive SCA effects coupled with significant positive heterosis for grain yield and for most of the yield contributing characters over the two commercial check varieties BHM 9 and NK40. Four crosses: P 1 × P 5 (CML116 × CML31), P 1 × P 6 (CML116 × CML32), P 2 × P 6 (CML72 × CML32) and P 3 × P 4 (CML33 × CML41), exhibited significant and negative SCA effects for both plant and ear height which were desirable for short stature. Genotypes x location interaction was also significant for maximum characters, suggesting that genotypes interacted significantly in different environments.