Inheritance of some physiological factors of productivity in barley

Abstract

Reciprocal crosses were made among seven barley genotypes of diverse origin. Parents and 42 F1's were grown in a randomized block design with four replications in the greenhouse. Chlorophyll fluorescence activity of the penultimate leaf (below flag leaf) of the main stem at flowering were measured for each plant. Leaf blade area and its duration were also determined for the above-mentioned leaves. "Leaf blade area × leaf life duration" was also used as a trait. Results of diallel analysis showed that both general and specific combining abilities were significant for all the characters studied. General combining ability values and effects were usually more important than those of specific combining ability, showing the importance of additive genetic control for the traits. Reciprocal effects were significant only for chlorophyll fluorescence activity. Narrow sense heritability values for leaf area, leaf duration, and its chlorophyll fluorescence activity were 87.9, 66.8, and 77.4%, respectively. Key words: combining ability, reciprocal effect, heritability, fluorescence, leaf area.