GENETIC STUDIES FOR SEED YIELD AND COMPONENT TRAITS IN MUSTARD (Brassica juncea L)

Analysis of variance mean sum of square due to genotypes were significant for all the traits studied. These present findings indicated that epistasis plays an important role in the inheritance of different characters in Indian mustard. Therefore, the epitasis interaction effects cannot be ignored, and the genetic model employed must account for the estimation of inter allelic interactions. Otherwise, the estimates are liable to biased and misleading. Triple test cross analysis also revealed the significant contribution of additive and dominance variation for characters under study. Predominance of non-fixable genetic effect including epistatic effects indicated the perceptible advantage of heterozygosity for enhanced expression of siliqua on main shoot, siliqua length, seed/siliqua and seed yield. Analysis of variance indicated significant values of total epistasis for all the traits except number of secondary branches. The homogeneity of the interactions of 2 variances (i + block and j + l x block) was non-significant for all the traits suggesting homogeneity of interaction variances. The partitioning of epistasis into i type (additive x additive) and j + l type (additive x dominance and dominance x dominance) epistasis indicated the involvement of both type of epistasis for days to flowering, days to maturity and seed yield