Gene Effects for Yield and Yield Components in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under Irrigated and Rainfed Conditions

Seven genetically diverse parents of chickpea were crossed in five combinations (RSG-895 x RSG-888, RSG-888 x ICC-4958, IPC-94-94 x RSG-888, CSJD-901 x RSG-931 and BG-362 x RSG-931) to develop F1, F2 and F3 hybrid progenies. Five generations viz., P1, P2, F1, F2 and F3 were grown in a compact family block design under irrigated and rainfed conditions to estimate the gene effects for yield and yield components. Scaling test ‘C’ and ‘D’ as well as joint scaling test revealed presence of epistatic in all the crosses for all the characters studied viz., days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, fruiting branches per plant, pods per plant, seeds per pod, biological yield per plant, seed yield per plant, harvest index, 100-seed weight and protein content under both the conditions. Both main effects additive (d) and dominance (h) were important for all the characters in all the crosses under both the conditions except 100-seed weight, where only additive effect was found important. Both additive x additive (i) and dominance x dominance (l) interaction effects were also important for all the characters in all the crosses under both the conditions except 100-seed weight, where only additive x additive interaction was found important. Generally, the magnitudes of dominance (h) and dominance x dominance (l) were prevailed over additive (d) and additive x additive (i) effects, respectively. Duplicate type of epistasis was observed in all the cases, where epistasis was established. Thus, it can be concluded that additive, dominance, additive x additive (i) and dominance x dominance (l) effects contributed significantly to the inheritance of various component characters in chickpea under both irrigated and rainfed conditions. These results implies the use of recurrent selection by way of intermating the desirable segregants followed by selection or biparental approach/intermating of segregants in early segregating generations for improvement of these components characters in chickpea under both the conditions.