Majeda AL- Rwaily*(1) Ayman Shehada AL-Ouda(2) Samir AL-Ahmad(1) and Rshad ALobaid(1)
(1). Crops Research Administration, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR), Damascus, Syria.
(2). Crops Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Damascus University, Damascus, Syria.
(*Corresponding author: Dr. Majeda Al-Rwaily. E-Mail: r.majeda@gmail.com).
Received: 09/07/2016 Accepted: 10/10/2016
Abstract
Half diallel cross among six inbred lines was conducted at the Scientific Agricultural Research Center in Deir Ezzor, during the growing season 2010. The fifteen crosses and the two local checks Ghoota82 and Basel-1 were evaluated during the growing season 2011, after being exposed to water stress during flowering and grain filling stages, in order to study the genetic behavior through estimating the general and specific combining ability of some secondary traits determining the grain yield i.e., anthesis silking interval, number of ears and per plant, number of grains per ear, 100 grain weight and harvest index, and to determine the response of maize genotypes for water stress through flowering and grain filling stages. The trial was conducted according to randomized block design, with tree replications. Results showed that GCA and SCA mean square of both lines and crosses were highly significant for most of the investigated traits indicating that inbred lines had variation and genetic diversity. The ratio σ2 GCA /σ2 SCA indicated the importance of the non-additive gene action for grain yield under water stress conditions during flowering and grain filling stages, while the non-additive gene action dominated of all other traits under water stress during the grain filling stage and full irrigation. The two lines p3 (IL344T.C-2007) and p2 (IL1081T.C-2009) revealed the best GCA. The hybrids p2×p3 (IL1081-2009×IL344-2007), and p1×p3 (IL441-2009×IL344-2007) showed the best SGA for grain yield trait.
Keywords: Maize. Combining ability, Water stress, Grain yield, Half diallel cross.
Full paper in Arabic: PDF