HETEROSIS AND COMBINING ABILITY STUDIES IN PEARL MILLET.

Pearl millet (pennisetum glaucum l.) Considered a main warm-season cereal crop for grain and fodder in the arid and semi-arid tropical regions. The present research was carried out to assess combining ability and heterosis through a complete 5x5 diallel experiment for grain yield and related parameters in pearl millet. General combining ability (gca) effects were highly significant for days to 50% flowering, panicle length and plant height while nonsignificant for grain yield per plant, no. Of productive tillers and panicle girth. Specific combining ability (sca) effects were highly significant for grain yield and non-significant for rest of the characters. These studies suggested that non-additive gene action was more important regarding the inheritance of grain yield while additive gene action had major role in the inheritance of days to 50% flowering, no. Of productive tillers, panicle girth, panicle length and plant height. The parent mgp-84 was good general combiner for the parameters studied. 15rbs-01 was good general combiner for all the characters except days to flowering. The crosses, mgp-84 x 13rbs-09, mgp-304 x 15rbs-01, mgp-84 x 13rbs-10, 13rbs-10 x 15rbs-01, 13rbs-09 x 15rbs-01, mgp-84 x 15rbs-01 and mgp-84 x mgp-304 were the best combinations for grain yield which involved good x good and good x poor general combiners. Sca variance for grain yield was higher than gca variance indicating that non-additive gene action had major role in its inheritance. Gca variances for days to flowering, productive tillers, panicle girth, panicle length and plant height were higher than sca variances which suggested that additive gene action had played key role in the inheritance of these traits. The consistency in results of both the trials for all the parameters implies that the results could be of broader use to the genetic improvement of grain yield and growth parameters in pearl millet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]