Validation of Biometrical Principles for Genetic Enhancement of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

In the present investigation, the degree of heterosis for seed yield varied considerably. Parent such as ICC 7315, ICC 13124, ICC 15697 and ICC 6877 were good general combiners and could be of use in breeding for improved productivity in chickpea. The top three crosses viz., ICC 11944 x ICC 13124 (16.95), ICC 9137 xICC 13124 (16.63) and ICC 2507 x ICC 2072 (13.10) exhibited highly significant positive (specific combining ability) effect with high per se performance for seed yield/plant. This indicated that the heterotic performance of these hybrids were mainly due to additive gene action. Further, these crosses are having parents with good xgood general combiners. The high Holics effects in these crosses was mainly through additive x additive type of interaction causing heterosis. Hence, direct selection for higher values of seed yield can be made in the advanced generations of the heterotic crosses involving such parents, as a large portion of the total variation is a result of additive gene effects. Considering F2 performance of these hybrids, three of the six highly heterotic F1’s in high diversity group and high mean (ICC 6877 xICC 7315, ICC 6877 xICC 2072 and ICC 6877 x ICC 10755) followed by high coefficient of variation and range. The mean F2 values of these hybrids range from 25.6 to 37g, from 32.2 to 39.0% coefficient of variation and the higher value of range from 41.2 to 43 g/plant. While in case of medium diversity group, three hybrids (ICC 15697 xICC 7315, ICC 3776 xICC 7315 and ICC 3776 xICC 10755) showed relatively high mean values and higher coefficient of variation with reasonably high range of expression but these figures were lower than those of the hybrids in high diversity group. These facts indicate that parents with high diversity have a better chance of showing high heterosis and better performance