Author(s): D.K. DE, B.K. SENAPATI, S. MUKHERJEE AND P. BANDOPADHYAY

Abstract: Eight varieties of Indian mustard (Brassica junce L.) viz. Vardhan, NDR 8501, MCN 20, Rohini, Rh 30, Varuna, Seeta and Kranti were hybridized in all possible combinations excluding the reciprocals. The parents and their 28 F1s were grown following recommended agronomic packages to study general and specific combining abilities and nature of gene action on different yield contributing characters. Results revealed presence of genetic divergence in respect of the characters under study. Both dominant and recessive alleles indicated to play important role in expression of different characters. Partial dominance type of gene action was observed in case of the characters like plant height, 100 seed weight, number of seeds per pod and weight of 25 pods. While overdominance type of gene action was noticed in case of number of primary branches per plant, number of pods per plant and yield per plant. The nature of gene action suggested early generation selection may be followed for some of the characters that can be used in the future mustard breeding programme. NDR 8501 was found to be good general combiner for plant height, 100 seed weight, yield per plant and weight of 25 pods. Some of the crosses like Vardhan x Seeta, Vardhan x Kranti, MCN 20 x Varuna and Rohini x Rh 30 exhibiting significant positive SCA effects revealed presence of ‘l’ type of epistasis or dominance x dominance type of gene interaction. Importance of both additive and non-additive gene actions was focused in the improvement of Indian mustard programme.

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