Determining Genetic Parameters for Some yield traits for Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.)

Abstract

In the spring season (2014), six inbreds of sunflower (C, Q, F, I, E and A) were introduced in full diallel cross to obtain 15 single hybrids and 15 reciprocal hybrids. The seeds of genotypes (parents and single and reciprocal hybrids) were cultivated in a control experiment using the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD), with three replicates in the fields of a farmer in Al-Kifl district, south of Babylon province during the autumn season (2014). The data were taken for the traits of a number of seeds in the disc, the weight of 100 seeds, the seed yield of the plant, the percentage of oil in the seeds and the oil yield in the plant in order to study the additive and dominance genetic variance and average degree of dominance and the percentage of heritability in the broad and narrow sense. The average of square genotypes (parents and diallel and reciprocal crosses) were significant at a probability of 1% for all studied traits. The (^2 gca)/(^2 sca ) and (^2 gca)/(^2 rca ) ratios were less than one for all traits. The average degree of dominance for diallel hybrids (ā) and the reciprocal hybrids (ā˗r) was greater than one in all studied traits. The values of broad-sense heritability were high for all traits, while its value in the narrow sense is high in reciprocal hybrids for the trait of the weight of 100 seeds and medium in their reciprocal hybrids, and low in diallel hybrids and medium in reciprocal hybrids for the number of seeds in the disc and the percentage of oil. As for the rest of the traits were low in its diallel and reciprocal hybrids.