Genetic study for epistatic gene effects for major yield contributing traits against drought in rice

Abstract

The study subjected to estimate gene effects and inheritance of quantitative traits of rice with Generation Mean Analysis (GMA). Segregation analysis and estimation of genetic parameters under epistatic model indicated partial dominance and importance of additive effects in the inheritance of drought tolerance, respectively. In present study, absence of epistasis by scaling tests was recorded only for plant height in cross NDR-359 x P0 1564, grains per panicle in cross DSL- 63-8 x NDR- 359, test weight in cross Sarjoo-52 x P0 359, harvest-index in cross NDR-359 x P0 1564 and spikelets per panicle in cross Sarjoo-52 x P0 359 and NDR-359 x P0 1564 in irrigated condition and days to 50 per cent flowering in cross P0 359 x Sonam and harvest-index in cross NDR-359 x P0 1564 in drought condition. In remaining cases, existence of epistasis was observed in either one or both conditions by one or both types of scaling tests. The presence of complementary epistasis in cross P0 359 x Sonam and P0 1564 x Sarjoo-52 would make progress through selection procedures exploiting additive gene actions faster while existence of duplicate epistasis in cross NDR-359 x P0 1564 would have reverse impact. The non-additive gene effects in NDR-359 x P0 1564 for grain yield plant-1may also be utilized for facilitating development of pureline cultivars by involving population improvement methods. Our study concluded that for a large number of traits in six crosses, dominance gene effects and epistatic interactions were significant under drought and irrigated conditions implying that utilization of heterosis through hybrid varieties will act as a budding choice.