Estimation of heterosis for yield and its contributing traits in Brassica juncea L.

Abstract

Brassica is an economically important genus consisting of oilseeds, vegetables, and forage crops. Brassica juncea L. is commonly known as Indian mustard. The current investigation was carried out with ten diverse parents, and 45 crosses in a half-diallel mating design. A total of 55 genotypes (45 F1 + 10 parents) were investigated for 14 traits, yield, yield characters, and oil content during rabi 2021-22 and 2022-23. All crosses along with their parents were assessed in RBD with three replications. Analysis of variance for combining ability showed that significant variation was present among 45 crosses and their parents. The cross DRMRIJ-31× BRIJRAJ showed positive significant mid-parent heterosis (30.76%) and better parent heterosis (30.20%), while the cross DRMR150-35 × RH-406 showed positive significant economic heterosis over both the checks (44.68% and 35.25%) respectively. The best crosses for yield/plant NRCDR-02 x PUSABOLD, NRCDR-02 x RH-761, NRCDR-02 x JM-2 and NRCDR-02 x BRIJRAJ exhibited positive and significant heterosis. Hence, these identified hybrids could be used for exploitation of heterosis after evaluating and testing with large multilocations.