Comparison of various methods of selecting parents for hybridization in common bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

A study was conducted with the objective of rationalizing the method of choosing parents for hybridization in a wheat breeding programme aimed at yield improvement. The various systems of selecting parents included (a) conventional method, (b) random method, (c) multivariate analysis method, and (d) according to ecogeographic diversity. The relative merits of these systems was measured by (i) F2 hybrid bulk yield, (ii) means and variances of yield of F5 lines, and (iii) the number of useful transgressive segregates for yield detected in F5. The application of multivariate analysis method of selecting parents and effecting crosses between the parents representing high intergenotypic divergence appeared to be more efficient than the method of selecting parents according to ecogeographic diversity. The conventional and random methods were relatively less efficient.