Line x tester analysis of combining ability in okra

Abstract

Combining ability effects were estimated for different characters in a line x tester crossing programme comprising 60 crosses produced by crossing of 15 lines and 4 testers. Parents and hybrids/crosses differed significantly for gca and sca effects, respectively. High average degree of dominance revealed predominance of non-additive gene effects for all the traits. The parents DOV-91-4, KS-410, No.315, Bhindi Vaphi, VRO-4, HRB-55, BO-2 and VRO-5 were found good general combiners for many of the characters. Therefore, these lines can be used for hybridization for producing promising recombinants. This indicates that parent showing high gca for fruit yield/plant might be due to high gca for fruit weight, fruit length, fruit diameter, internodal length and number of fruits/plant. High sca effects were expressed for cross combinations, BO-2 × IIVR-10, Pusa Makhmali × IIVR-10, EMS-8-1 x Parbhani Kranti, Punjab Padmini × IIVR-10, No.315 × IIVR-10 and Sel.4 × Parbhani Kranti for fruit yield/plant and also exhibited high or average sca effects for yield component traits.