Gene Action and Combining Ability Analysis in some Soybean Quantitative Characters

Abstract

This present investigation was carried out at Food Legumes Department, Sakha Agricultural Research Station, Agriculture Research Center, Egypt, in summer 2016 and 2017 seasons. Six parental genotypes of soybean were used in this study. In 2016, the Six soybean genotypes were used as parents in half diallel cross mating design. In the second season, the experimental were conducted to evaluate the yield potential and agronomic performance of the obtained F1's hybrids of the fifteen crosses compared with their parents. The results could be summarized as follows: Mean squares for genotypes, General and specific combining ability were highly significant for all the studied traits. The parental line L75-6648 was the best of tested parent in flowering and maturity dates. Also, the crosses Giza111 X Giza21 and L75-6648 X Giza21 , exhibited the lowest mean values for these traits. The parental L75-6648 as well as the crosses L75-6648 X Giza111 and Toano X Giza111, were taller in plant height than their parental means. For number of pods and seeds per plant, the parents Giza111 and Giza21 as well as the crosses Pershing X Giza111 and Holladay X Giza21 gave the highest values for number of pods and seeds per plant. For seed yield per plant, the two parents, Giza21 and Giza111 gave the highest values of this trait. The crosses Pershing X Giza111, Toano X Giza111, Holladay X Giza21 and Giza111X Giza21 gave the highest values for seed yield/plant. The parental variety Giza111(P5) gave significant negative (gi) effects for flowering and maturity dates.