TITLE:
Identification of Potential F1 Hybrids in Maize Responsive to Water Deficient Condition
AUTHORS:
Fahad Masoud Wattoo, Muhammad Saleem, Muhammad Sajjad
KEYWORDS:
Maize, General Combining Ability (GCA), Specific Combining Ability (SCA), Water Stress, Inbred Lines
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.5 No.13,
June
19,
2014
ABSTRACT:
The assessment of
heterotic F1 combinations is a basic requisite for hybrid seed
development. A set of 30 F1 hybrids along with their parental inbred
lines were evaluated under both normal and water deficit conditions for various
physiological and agronomic traits. Highly significant mean squares due to
general combining ability, specific combining ability and reciprocal effect
were observed for all traits under both water regimes. Components of variation
exhibited greater estimates for GCA variance (б2g) than SCA variance (б2s) for majority of the traits under both normal and
stress conditions depicting the predominant role of additive genetic component.
Inbred lines NCIL-20-20, D-157 and OH-8 were found to be the best general
combiner on the basis of performance regarding grain yield per plant under
water deficit condition. The F1 combinations namely, NCIL-20-20 ×
D-109, NCIL-20-20 × OH-8 and D-157 × NCIL-20-20 were out-performers based on
yield and yield attributes under water deficit conditions. On the basis of our
results, we recommend these hybrids for further exploitation to assess their
potential for commercial cultivation under water deficit condition.