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COMBINING ABILITY ESTIMATES IN F₂ AND F₃ ENERATIONS FOR EARLY MATURITY AND AGRONOMIC TRAITS IN PEANUT (ARACHIS HYPOGAEA L.)

NAAZAR ALI, MALIK SHAH NAWAZ, KHURRAM BASHIR AND M. YASIN MIRZA

Abstract: Development of early maturing and high yielding cultivars of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is a major objective of groundnut breeding programme. To select the best combining parents, three high yielding virginia type cultivars No. 334, Banki and NC-9 were crossed with four early spanish type lines ICGSE-4, ICGSE-130, ICGSE-147 and Chico in a factorial mating design. F2 and F3 generations were evaluated in the field to determine the combining ability of the parents for maturity and other agronomic traits. General combining ability (GCA) estimates were significant for all traits except maturity index in F₂ and F₃ generations and seeds per 50 pods in F3. Specific combining ability (SCA) estimates were non-significant for all the traits except oil contents in F ₂ and pod length in F₃ generations. The magnitude of GCA was much greater than SCA for all traits in both the generations indicating that additive genetic variance (GCA) was more important than nonadditive genetic variance (SCA). Among male parents ICGSE-147 gave highest GCA for 20 pod length, seeds per 50 pods while Chico gave best GCA for maturity index. Among adapted female parents NO. 334 gave best GCA for seeds per 50 pod and maturity index while NC-9 gave best GCA for 100 seed weight.

National Agricultural Research Centre, Park Road, Islamabad, Pakistan.