Combining Ability Studies for Development of New Hybrids over Environments in Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.)

Seven CMS lines were crossed with six inbred lines in Line x Tester fashion to elucidate the information on the nature of gene action involved in the inheritance of important quantitative traits and to select the parents with good gca and crosses with good sca effects. The resultant 42 hybrids were evaluated along with their parents with three standard checks at three locations in Andhra Pradesh state viz., Hyderabad, Tandur, and Jagtial. The pooled analysis of variance for combining ability revealed that sca variance was higher in magnitude compared to gca variance for all the characters except oil content indicating the preponderance of non-additive gene action for all the characters while additive gene action for oil content. The gca effects of the parents in pooled analysis revealed that among the lines ARM 243B and CMS 17B and among the testers RHA-6D-1R, RES-834-1 and 3376R were found to be promising general combiners for seed yield and yield component characters. Based on significant sca effects in pooled analysis, five hybrids viz., CMS 89A x RES-834-1, CMS 17A x LTRR 341, ARM 243A x R 298, ARM 238A x 3376R and CMS 852A x R-649  were identified as promising for seed yield and other yield contributing characters.