Estimation of heterosis, heritability and genetic parameters for some agronomic traits of rice using the line × tester method

Abstract

Twelve F1 hybrids generated from Line × Tester and their seven parents were tested in a randomised full block design with three replications during the 2017 and 2018 growing seasons. The primary goal of this study was to analyze the genetic diversity and relationships of seven rice genotypes and their children from the first generation (F1) by analyzing heterosis, wide and narrow sense heritability, correlation coefficient, and cluster analysis. The best combinations for duration, plant height, and sterility percentages were Al – AHSA-1 × Giza177, Al – AHSA-2 × Giza177, Al – AHSA-2 × Shin2, and BL1 × IET1444. These paternal lines have the potential to be employed in future breeding projects. In contrast, there is a high positive heterosis for the number of tillers per plant, 1000-grain weight, number of full grains per panicle, and grain production per plant. Among the best crosses were Al-AHSA-2 × IET1444, Al-AHSA-1 × Giza177, Al-AHSA-1 × IET1444, and Al-AHSA-2xGiza177. This study concludes as except for panicle weight, all attributes tested had the maximum broad-sense heritability, while the lowest narrow-sense heritability values were noted for sterility percentage (1.76) followed by duration (3.03), panicle length (3.61), and 1000-grain weight (3.62) accordingly.