ESTIMATION OF GENE ACTION FOR THE SELECTION OF SUPERIOR PARENTS AND THEIR CROSS COMBINATIONS FOR YIELD AND FIBER ASSOCIATED ATTRIBUTES IN AMERICAN COTTON (GOSSYPIUM HIRSUTUM L.)

Abstract

Cotton is very important crop regarding the global trade. It is grown for its fiber and edible oil in Pakistan. It contributes 1.5 percent to GDP and 69 percent in foreign exchange. There is need to enhance the yield per unit area of cotton by developing high yielding and stress tolerant varieties. In breeding program the parents and their crosses are selected on the basis of their combining ability. Combining ability analysis is performed to identify the general and specific combiner for yield attributed traits. This research was performed for evaluation of four lines as female parents (C-1, CIM-616, TIPO-1 and CYTO-608) and three testers as male parents (NIAB-1048, CYTO-124 and CIM-600) of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). The traits such as plant height, first fruiting node, seed cotton yield, monopodial branches, sympodial branches, ginning out turn percentage, number of bolls per plant, height to node ratio and cotton seed yield was tested. The general combining ability of parental lines and specific combining ability of the F₁ cross will be determined for yield related traits. The genotypes with good general combining ability and specific combining ability further exploited for hybrid/variety development programs. For most of the traits like number of monopods per plant, boll weight per plant, seed cotton yield, number of nodes per plant, 1^st fruiting node, intermodal distance, ginning out turn percentage, cotton seed yield, seed index, plant height, fiber strength, fiber length, fiber uniformity and fiber fineness value had more value for dominance variance. The higher effects of GCA and SCA indicated that there is the role of additive and non-additive gene action for inheritance of traits.