Research Report Open Access Combining Ability for Yield and yield Attributing Characters in Line×Tester interspecific Hybrids (G. hirsutum×G. barbadense) for Confirmation of Heterotic Groups

Copyright ©2013 Alkuddsi et al. This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Alkuddsi et al., 2013, Combining Ability for Yield and Yield Attributing Characters In Line×Tester Interspecific Hybrids (G. hirsutum×G. barbadense) for Confirmation of Heterotic Groups, Molecular Plant Breeding, Vol.4, No.20 157-168 (doi: 10.5376/mpb.2013.04.0020) Abstract The prime objective of cotton breeders is to develop new varieties with high yield and yield components. Present study aims to estimate general combining ability of the parents and specific combining ability of hybrids for yield and yield components. The term heterotic group refers to a group of related or unrelated genotypes from the same or different populations, which display similar combining ability and heterotic response when crossed with genotypes from other genetically distinct germplasm groups. If two lines A and B are found to give potential crosses with testers T1 and T2, it is possible to increase the genetic distance between these opposite pairs A, B vs, T1 and T2 by following population improvement scheme for improving combining ability defined in cross pollinated crops by introducing suitable changes to match the crossing system seen in self pollinated crops. The Line×Tester study was planned to assess the relative potential of the barbadense and hirsutum in developing interspecific hybrid combinations. The objective of this stud