Parental Diversity and Its Relationship with Performance of F1 Hybrid in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

The present investigation was carried out including 10 parents and their 45 half diallel crosses with the objective to study the relationship between heterosis and diverse genotype. The Mahalonobis D2values resulted in grouping of 10 parents into 3 clusters. Cluster I was comprised of four genotypes, cluster II comprised of five genotypes while, cluster III was found monogenotypic. Cluster II and Cluster III had maximum mean values for 4 traits. Highest intercluster distance was also observed in these 2 cluster followed by cluster I and III . Maximum intra cluster distance was observed in cluster II followed by cluster I. The highest contribution in the manifestation of total genetic divergence was exhibited by grain iron content followed by grain zinc content. The relationship between parental diversity and heterosis indicated that majority of crosses belong to moderate divergence class. The cross P4×P5 exhibiting better parent heterosis for maximum traits also exhibited at par mean performance for 5 traits including grain yield per plant over the better parent. For grain zinc content, two crosses from high and low while, nine crosses from moderate divergence classes reported positive significant heterosis and SCA effects. For grain iron content, 1 cross with high, 2 crosses with moderate while four crosses with low divergence classes reported significantly positive heterosis and SCA effects.