COMBINING ABILITY AND GENE ACTION IN OKRA (Abelmoschus esculentus L.)
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Date
2023-12-29
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UHF,NAUNI
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The present investigation titled, “Combining ability and gene action in okra (Abelmoschus esculentus
L.)” was carried out at the Experimental Farm, Department of Vegetable Science, Dr YS Parmar University of
Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, HP, India during Kharif of 2021 and 2022 to study the mean
performance, heterosis, combining ability effects, and nature and magnitude of gene action for yield and quality
traits in okra. The experimental material used in the present study comprised of thirteen diverse okra genotypes,
which were crossed in Line × Tester mating design during Kharif, 2021 to obtain thirty cross combinations. The
thirty F1 crosses along with thirteen parental genotypes and one check Punjab-8 were evaluated in RCBD with
three replications during Kharif, 2022. The observations were recorded on days to 50 per cent flowering, first
flowering node, plant height, inter-nodal length, number of primary branches per plant, pod length, pod
diameter, number of ridges per pod, number of pods per plant, average tender pod weight, pod yield per plant,
pod yield per hectare, days to first picking, harvest duration, number of seeds per pod, hundred seed weight, pod
colour at maturity, average tender pod dry weight, total sugar content in tender pod, total polyphenol content in
tender pod, total protein content in tender pod, total nitrogen content in tender pod and mucilage content in
tender pod. The analysis revealed that all the genotypes possessed wide spectrum of variability and showed
significant differences for parents and hybrids for the traits under studied. UHFO-6 (307.77 g), Hisar Unnat
(232.65 g) and UHFO-14 (200.12 g) among parents and cross combinations viz. UHFO-6 × Pusa Bhindi-5
(323.94 g) , UHFO-6 × Arka Anamika (321.74 g) and UHFO-2 × Pusa Bhindi-5 (256.26 g) performed best for
pod yield per plant. The top five hybrid combinations for pod yield per plant showing significant positive
heterosis over standard check were UHFO-6 × Pusa Bhindi-5 (129.29 %) UHFO-6 × Arka Anamika (127.73 %),
UHFO-6 × Hisar Unnat (107.45 %), UHFO-2 Pusa Bhindi-5 (81.38 %) and UHFO-2 × Arka Anamika (73.53
%). The parental genotypes; UHFO-6 (123.47) and UHFO-9 (7.49)) were superior based on their general
combining ability effects. The crosses UHFO-2 × Pusa Bhindi-5 (38.29) and UHFO-10 × Hisar Unnat (38.81)
were good specific combiners for pod yield per plant. The non-additive gene action was predominant for the
inheritance of the majority of the characters. Inter-nodal length (54.62 %) contributed maximum in lines,
number of pods per plant (43.94 %) contributed maximum in testers and average tender pod weight (80.63 %)
contributed maximum in the line × tester interaction. During kharif 2022, both parents along with each of F1, F2,
B1 and B2 were evaluated to study the inheritance of pod colour ok okra. The Chi-square analysis for pod colour
revealed that they are predominantly controlled by additive gene action with epistatic effect. The pattern of
inheritance for pod colour traits was governed by a single pair of gene as all the F2 crosses showed a monogenic
3:1 ratio.