Combining Ability of Different Agronomic Traits and Yield Components in Hybrid Barley.

Xinzhong Zhang,Baojian Guo,Liangjie Lv,Chao Lv,Rugen Xu,Meixue Zhou

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0126828

Abstract

Selection of parents based on their combining ability is an effective approach in hybrid breeding. In this study, eight maintainer lines and nine restorer lines were used to obtain 72 crosses for analyzing the general combining ability (GCA) and special combining ability (SCA) for seven agronomic and yield characters including plant height (PH), spike length excluding awns (SL), inter-node length (IL), spikes per plant (SP), thousand kernel weight (TKW), kernel weight per plant (KWP) and dry matter weight per plant (DWP). The results showed that GCA was significantly different among parents and SCA was also significantly different among crosses. The performance of hybrid was significantly correlated with the sum of female and male GCA (TGCA), SCA and heterosis. Hu1154 A, Mian684 A, 86F098 A, 8036 R and 8041 R were excellent parents with greater general combining ability. Five crosses, Hu1154 A×8032 R, Humai10 A×8040 R, Mian684 A×8037 R, Mian684 A×8041 R and 86F098 A×8037 R, showed superior heterosis for most characters.

Highlights

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) ranks the fourth in terms of planting area and total production among all cereal crops in the world [1]
Great progress has been made on barley heterosis studies [2] with the development of barley three-line breeding system based on cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS), maintainer and restorer lines [3]
Using combining ability to select parents is an effective approach in hybrid breeding

Summary

Introduction

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) ranks the fourth in terms of planting area and total production among all cereal crops in the world [1]. It has been widely used as a health food, animal feed and fermentable material for the beer industry. Great progress has been made on barley heterosis studies [2] with the development of barley three-line breeding system based on cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS), maintainer and restorer lines [3]. The first commercial hybrid variety ‘Colossus’ was released in the UK in 2002 [4]. Syngenta Ltd released more than ten six-row winter hybrid barley varieties based on the CMS system. Over 200,000 ha of hybrid barley varieties were sown in Europe [4]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion