Published in Scientific Papers. Series A. Agronomy, Vol. LXVIII, Issue 1
Written by Neli VALKOVA, Minka KOLEVA, Valentina DIMITROVA, Bogomil MIHAYLOV
The aim of this study was to evaluate the nature of gene action, combinnig ability of parents and F1 hybrids in line × tester cotton crosses. An approach was applied to identify the parents having as high as possible GCA for all studied traits and to select the most reliable F1 crosses by their ranking based on the total effects using the squared Euclidean distance. Crosses with relatively short Euclidean distances to the “ideal” population in which desirable segregats are expected to occur were identified. The crosses 572 × Chirpan-539, Melani × Chirpan-539 and 641 × Chirpan-539 had the highest positive GCA for the three studed traits and appeared to be the most valuable for breeding programs. Heterosis manifestations were found for the three traits in individual croses, the heterobeltiosis for productivity per plant ranged from 103.7% to 141.9%, for lint percentage was from 101.3% to 107.2% and for fiber length - from 102.2% to 106.8%. Good general combiners were identified and high GCA of some was mainly due to additive genes, making them very suitable for the synthetic selection.
[Read full article] [Citation]
