GENETIC ANALYSIS OF GRAIN YIELD AND ITS ATTRIBUTES IN PEARL MILLET [Pennisetum glaucum(L.) R. Br. Emend Stuntz]

BHURI SINGH¹*, K.C. SHARMA², V.D. SASTRYE³, M.L. JAKHAR⁴, H.K. MEENA^5
1Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, S. K. N. College of Agriculture, Jobner, Jaipur, 303 329, Rajasthan, India
²Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, S. K. N. College of Agriculture, Jobner, Jaipur, 303 329, Rajasthan, India
³Division of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Rajasthan Agriculture Research Institute,Durgapura, Jaipur, 302 018, Rajasthan, India
⁴Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, S. K. N. College of Agriculture, Jobner, Jaipur, 303 329, Rajasthan, India
⁵Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, S. K. N. College of Agriculture, Jobner, Jaipur, 303 329, Rajasthan, India
* Corresponding Author : bhurisingh.gpb@gmail.com

Received : 12-08-2015     Accepted : 21-08-2015     Published : 07-11-2015
Volume : 7     Issue : 8       Pages : 634 - 637
Int J Agr Sci 7.8 (2015):634-637

Keywords : Pearl millet, Half-diallel, Gene effects, Pennisetumglaucum
Academic Editor : Dr Ashok Yadav, Simerjeet Kaur, Thatyane Pereira De Sousa, Alan Carlos A. De Souza, CArtes
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : None declared

The nature of gene action was studied for grain yield and its related eleven component traits in pearl millet. The preponderance of non-additive gene action was observed. However, the magnitude of dominant gene action (H1 and H2) was greater than their corresponding additive gene effects (D). This suggested that the dominant genes played a significant role in the control of all the characters. The average degree of dominance (H1/D)1/2 was more than 1 indicates over dominance for all the characters during inheritance. The distribution of genes with positive and negative effects was found asymmetrical for all the traits. The ratio of KD/KR revealed that the dominance genes were more frequent than recessive ones.High estimates of heritability in narrow sense was observed for test weight and harvest index suggesting that selection based on these attributes would lead to rapid genetic improvement. The preponderance of non-additive gene effects of grain yield and its component traits in parents indicated that, heterosis breeding would be practically feasible in pearl millet.