COMBINING ABILITY STUDIES ON A1 SOURCE OF CYTOPLASMIC MALE STERILITY SYSTEM IN PEARL MILLET

A study on combining ability analysis in pearl millet revealed that majority of the characters are under the control of non-additive gene action and SCA variances were greater than GCA variances. Among the testers, ICMA 94555 emerged as a best general combiner and the next best general combiners were JSMA101, ICMA 842 and ICMA 88004 which showed significant and positive gca effect for majority of the characters. The crosses ICMA 842 x IPC-217, ICMA 94555 x IPC-1104, ICMA842 x IPC-217, ICMA 88004 x IPC-873 were found productive cum heterotic hybrids. Among the four females, ICMA-94555, ICMA-842 and ICMA-88004 were found to be high general combiners. The female ICMA-94555 recorded maximum plus points by exhibiting significant positive gca effect for nine quantitative traits. The crosses involving lines viz., IPC-217, IPC-1104, IPC-338, IPC-827-1 and IPC-873 were found to be highly heterotic.