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Identification of Superior Single Cross Hybrids for Grain Yield and its
Component Traits of Maize (Zea mays L.) for summer

Article · January 2014

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3768 in Biosciences 7(22): 3768-3770, 2014
Trends Trends in Biosciences 7 (22), 2014

Identification of Superior Single Cross Hybrids for Grain Yield and its
Component Traits of Maize (Zea mays L.) for summer
NAVEEN KUMAR K.L1., G. SHANTHAKUMAR1, M.Y KAMATAR1, BRUNDA S.M.1,
SHADAKSHARI T.V.1, GOWTHAMI R2
1
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding
University of Agricultural Science, Dharwad-580 005, India
2
Ph. D Scholars, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Tamil Nadu Agriculture university,
Madurai-625 104
email:nkumar8074@gmail.com

ABSTRACT percent of poultry ration; it also entered in more

The study was conducted to assess the combining ability,
nature of gene action and extent of heterosis in respect of
grain yield and its component traits, involving 90 hybrids
(developed through L x T design using thirty inbreds, three
testers) and nine commercial checks in maize during
summer and kharif, 2013 at MARS, University of
Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad. Thirty inbred lines
were crossed with each of three testers in a line ×
tester design to evaluate combining ability and heterosis
to identify promising hybrids of maize for various
characters viz., days to 50 per cent tasseling, days to 50
per cent silking, days to 75 per cent dry husk, ear length,
ear girth, number of kernels row per ear, number of
kernel per row, hundred seed weight, shelling percentage
and grain yield per hectare. The resulting F1s along with
three checks and the parents were evaluated during
summer 2013. Analysis of variance revealed highly
significant differences among the genotypes. Crosses
excelled their perspective parents in performance for
most of the traits studied. DMIL767, DMIL318 and
DMIL326 among the parental lines and DMIL011 among
the testers were identified as the best general combiner
for grain yield. Whereas among the hybrids, DMIL765 x
DMIL031, DMIL318 x DMIL011 and DMIL639 x DMIL011
were identified as a potential cross combination for grain
yield while the cross DMIL765 x DMIL031 recorded
highest magnitude of economic heterosis of 13.95
percentages over the best standard check. So the crosses
DMIL765 x DMIL031, DMIL318 x DMIL011 and
DMIL639 x DMIL011 can be utilized for developing high
yielding hybrid varieties as well as for exploiting hybrid
vigor.
Key words Heterosis, Combining ability, specific
combining ability, testers and Hybrids
Maize (Zea mays L., 2n=20) is one of the most
important economic cereal crops of the world. It ranks
the third after wheat and rice. Corn contributes highly
industrial products. It possesses one of the most well
studied genetic systems among cereals which have
motivated a rich history of research into the genetics
of various traits in maize. In fact maize has been
subjected to extensive genetic studies than any other
crop (Hallauer and Miranda, 1988).
The concept of combining ability is landmark in
the hybridization programe. Combining ability analysis
is one of the effective approaches available for estimating
the combining ability effects that helps in selecting
desirable parents and crosses for the exploitation of
heterosis. Knowledge on the nicking ability of genotypes
in hybrid combination is of paramount importance,
since the combining ability of parents and hybrids does
not always depends on the per se performance. In order
to identify potential cross combinations, it is very
important to screen out the parent materials for their
genetic diversity and combining ability (Satyanarayana,
et al., 2000). Line x Tester method is considered one
of the effective ways for estimating the general and
specific combining ability, hybrid vigor and gene action
to select the inbred lines for the late generation
(Kempthorne, 1957 and Ceranka, et. al. 1998).The
present investigation was carried out to determine the
nature and magnitude of gene action and heterosis for
yield and other important traits in maize (Zea mays L.).
MAETERIALS AND METHODS
The basic material for the present study
comprised 33 parents that is, thirty diverse , vigorous
and productive maize (Zea mays L.) inbred lines viz.,
DMIL218, DMIL233, DMIL247, DMIL130, DMIL136,
DMIL318, DMIL326, DMIL466, DMIL145, DMIL147,
DMIL152, DMIL497, DMIL516, DMIL559, DMIL561,
DMIL606, DMIL630, DMIL639, DMIL 655,
DMIL688, DMIL699, DMIL703, DMIL736, DMIL749,
DMIL762, DMIL765, DMIL767, DMIL769 and
DMIL771 and three well adapted testers of varying
 KUMAR, et al., Identification of Superior Single Cross Hybrids for Grain Yield and its Component Traits of Maize
genetic base viz., DMIL011, DMIL021 and DMIL031
(Table 1). Hybridization among the genotypes has been
done by line x tester method (Kempthorne, 1957), during
anthesis as the tassels of male parent and the silks of
females appeared, they were isolated and covered with
special papers bag for this purpose to avoid self-
pollination among them, self pollination was done for
all the genotypic materials (33 parents) the seeds of
each hybrid and parent were harvested and dried to be
used in summer 2012 at MARS, UAS Dharwad to
generate 90 hybrids.
These 90 hybrids and thirty three parental lines
with three standard checks viz., Super 900M, Bio-9681
and Arjun were grown in a randomized block design in
three replications. Each entry was sown in two rows
having 60 × 20 cm crop geometry. Data were recorded
on randomly selected five plants in each replication for
fourteen characters viz., days to 50 per cent tasseling,
days to 50 per cent silking, days to 75 per cent dry
husk, ear length (cm), ear girth (cm), number of kernel
rows per ear, number of kernels per row, test weight
(g), shelling percentage and grain yield (q/ha). Combining
ability and heterosis analysis was carried out according
to formulae given by Kempthorne, 1957 through
computer generated program, WINDOSTAT (edition
9.1).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Analysis of variance to test the significance of
difference among the genotypes (Table 2 and 3)
revealed highly significant differences for all ten traits
reflecting thereby presence of adequate diversity in the
genetic material chosen for the study. Line × tester
interactions were found to be significant for all the
characters except days to 75 percent dry husk. The
estimation of SCA variance were much higher for all
the characters except for number of rows per ear and
number of kernels per row as compare to the respective
GCA variance (Table 4) implied the greater
importance of non-additive gene effects in
inheritance of grain yield and it’s component traits.
These results were also supported by the earlier
findings of Vasal, et al., 1992 and Joshi ,et al., 1998.
The analysis of combining
ability effects revealed that none of the parents
possessed desirable gca effects for all the traits studied
(Table 5). However, DMIL767 was found to have the
highest positive and highly significant gca effect for
grain yield followed by DMIL218, DMIL318,
DMIL326, DMIL152, DMIL639, DMIL699, DMIL749,
DMIL765, DMIL767 and DMIL769. These parents also
showed significant positive gca effect and
3769
simultaneously possessed high mean value indicating
that the per se performance of the parents could prove
as an useful index for combining ability. Roy et al.,
1998 and Hussain, et al., 2003 also observed similar
phenomenon. Regarding maturity related traits,
DMIL497 revealed the most desirable negative and
significant value for tasseling and silking while
DMIL639 revealed the most desirable negative and
significant value for dry husk. The inbred DMIL103,
DMIL497 and DMIL767 exhibited highest positive and
significant gca value for various yield related
components viz., ear length, number of rows per ear
and number of kernels per row besides being a good
general combiner for maturity traits. The lines with
desirable gca should be extensively used in the crossing
programme to exploit maximum genetic variability.
A critical evaluation of the results with respect to
specific combining ability effects showed that none of
the cross combinations exhibited desirable
significant sca effects for all the characters. The
estimates of specific combining ability analysis
demonstrated various cross combinations having
significant positive sca effects (Table 6). The highest
magnitude of desirable sca effects for grain yield in q/
ha was detected in DMIL318 x DMIL011 followed by
DMIL136 x DMIL021, DMIL233 x DMIL011,
DMIL247 x DMIL011 and DMIL703 x DMIL021 were
regarded as good combiner these single cross hybrid
were obtained from parents with low x high, high x
low, high x low, low x low, low x high (Table 6). Beck,
et al., 1990, Singh and Mishra, 1996, Chaudhary, et
al., 2000 and Surya and Ganguli, 2004 also reported
high positive specific combining ability effects along
with high per se performance for grain yield. However
for maturity related traits, DMIL136 x DMIL031
showed the most desirable value for tasseling and
silking while DMIL103 x DMIL031 and DMIL 703 x
DMIL021 were the most desirable value for test weight.
The cross combination DMIL318 x DMIL011 was a
good specific combiner for ear length. The superiority
of crosses as parents could be explained on the basis
of interaction between positive alleles from good
combiners and negative alleles for the poor combiners
as parents. The high yield of such crosses would be
non-fixable and thus could be exploited for heterosis
breeding.
All the crosses exhibited highly significant
positive heterosis over mid parent and better parent for
grain yield (Table 6). The cross combination DMIL765
x DMIL031 followed by DMIL318 x DMIL011 and
DMIL699 x DMIL031 revealed magnitude of economic
heterosis on far over the best check for grain yield in q/
3770 Trends in Biosciences 7 (22), 2014
ha. Appreciable percentage of heterosis for grain yield
in maize was also reported by Lonnquist and Gardner,
1961, Akhtar and Singh, 1981 and Gerrish, 1981. In
another study, Debnath, 1987 and Roy, et al., 1998),
observed 13.95 to 245.10% and -16.42 to 71.82%
heterobeltiosis, respectively. The cross combination
DMIL103 x DMIL011, DMIL233 x DMIL011 and
DMIL145 x DMIL021 showed the most desirable value
for heterosis for days to 50 per cent tasseling and
silking. However the cross DMIL103 x DMIL031 and
DMIL655 x DMIL021 revealed maximum positive
and highly significant heterosis for ear length and
number of kernel rows per ear. the cross combinations
DMIL559 x DMIL021, DMIL767 x DMIL011 and
DMIL703 x DMIL011 were recorded the highly
significant heterosis for ear girth, number of kernels
per row and shelling percentage, respectively. For
hundred seed weight, the cross combination DMIL103
x DMIL031 followed by DMIL762 x DMIL031
showed highest magnitude of economic heterosis.
Most crosses showing significant positive sca effect
and highest magnitude of economic heterosis for grain
yield involved DMIL011 and DMIL031 as testers.
Therefore these promising crosses were
identified as overall high general combiners and these
could be utilized for development of either the synthetic
varieties or an elite breeding population by allowing
thorough mixing among them to achieve new genetic
recombination and then subjecting the resultant
population to recurrent selection.
LITERATURE CITED
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Received on 02-08-2014 Accepted on 05-10-2014