Inheritance pattern of earliness and yield traits in half-diallel crosses of spring wheat

A half-diallel mating system was used to evaluate six wheat cultivars and their F1 and F2 populations for inheritance of earliness and morphological and yield traits. These genotypes were crossed in a half-diallel fashion during 2010–2011 to get 15 cross combinations. The 6 × 6 wheat F1 and F2 half-diallel populations and their parental cultivars were assessed in a randomized complete block design during 2011–2012 and 2012–2013, respectively. Genotypes revealed significant (P ≤ 0.01) differences for all the traits in both generations. According to scaling tests, an additive–dominance model was partially adequate for all the traits in the F1 and F2 generations. Diallel analysis revealed significant values for additive (D) and dominance (H1 and H2) genetic components of variance for majority traits in both generations, however, the overdominance type of gene action was predominant for inheritance. Additive gene action was observed for days to heading and plant height in the F1 generation and tiller per plan...