Heterotic potential and combining ability of yield and quality traits in garden pea (Pisum sativum L.)

Abstract

Thirty-nine crosses of pea made in line x tester design were
evaluated and SCA/GCA variance ratios for majority of the
traits were more than unity which indicated the
predominance of non-additive gene effects except for
number of primary branches per plant, crude and soluble
protein and total sugars. Among the females, 09/PMVAR-7
and NS-3 were considered to be best combiner for earliness
whereas VRP-8, 10/PMVAR-4, PB-89, 09/PMVAR-4 were
good general combiners for pods per node, 100 seed weight,
green pod yield per plant, primary branches per plant on the
basis of having per se performance and gca effect. The cross
combination 09/PMVAR-7 x PM-65 was observed to have
high per se performance along with high sca effects over
better parent for days to 50% flowering and days to
marketable maturity. Whereas, none of the cross
combinations exhibited desirable significant heterosis over
both the checks Arkel and MA-6 for earliness. The cross
combination Arka Sampoorna x 08/PMVAR-4 and PB-89 x
PM-65 were observed to have high heterosis over both better
parent and two checks (Arkel and MA-6) along with high
sca effects and mean performance for green pod yield per
plant. Though the development of hybrid varieties does
not seem to be economically feasible in garden pea but the
development of pure line from the segregating material of
hybrid combination can be used to develop a variety.