STUDY ON COM BIN ING ABIL ITY FOR YIELD, GRAIN AND MALT QUAL ITY IN BARELY

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1 Pro gres sive Re search 8 (Special) : (2013) So ci ety for Sci. Dev. in Agric. and Tech. STUDY ON COM BIN ING ABIL ITY FOR YIELD, GRAIN AND MALT QUAL ITY IN BARELY Vikas Kumar, R.P.S. Verma 1, B.S. Chaudhay 2 K.V.K., Nagina (SVP Univ.of Agri. And Tech., Modipuram, Meerut) 1 Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal 2 Deptt. of G.P.B., J.V. Col lege Baraut Key words: ABSTRACT The study was undertaken to know the genetic control and combining ability for yield, grain and malt quality traits in barley (Hordeum vulgare L). In all 15 F1s derived from crosses involving six parents (RD 2503, DWR28, PL426, K551, DWR46 and ALFA93) were used in the study along with the parents. The observations were recorded on plant height, spike length, days to maturity, grain yield per plant, 1000 grain weight, test weight (Kg/h), germinative energy ( at 72 hrs in %), protein content (%), malt yield (%), malt friability (%), hot water extract (%), wort filtration rate (ml/hr), malt nitrogen, bold grain (%), thin grain (%), wort nitrogen, Kolbach index, wort ph, wort viscosity and diastatic power. The analysis of variance due to genotypes was highly significant for all the characters, except for the wort nitrogen, malt nitrogen and Kolbach index, indicating that the genotypes differed genetically for all traits studied except these three. Significant and desirable direction of gca effects was for exhibited for spike length, grain yield per plant, 1000 grain weight, germinative energy, test weight, bold grain, malt yield, malt friability, wort filtration rate, hot water extract and diastatic power. Considering the gca and per se performance it was concluded that DWR46 is the desirable parent for breeding for high yield and several quality contributing traits followed by DWR 28 and RD2503. Thus in barley breeding programme aiming at improving the yield and yield components it may be concluded that a crosses involving DWR46, DWR28 and RD2503 should be effected to obtain transgressive segregants in the early generations. Crosses, DWR28 / DWR46, RD2503 / K551 and DWR46 / ALFA93 proved more promising for yield and malting quality improvement programme. In all these crosses at least one parent is a good general combiner. Significant and desirable direction of SCA effects was observed for spike length, grain yield per plant, 1000 grain weight, germinative energy, test weight, bold %, malt yield, malt friability, hot water extract, wort filtration rate and diastatic power. Barley, malting quality, combining ability, grain yield. Barley is one of the first domesticated cereals, most likely originating in the Fertile Crescent area of the Near East. Many references to barley and beer are found in early Egyptian and Sumerian writings that are more than 5000 years old. Archaeological evidence of barley cultivation has been found dating back to 8000 BC in Iran. There is now considerable evidence that the initial cultivation of barley in China and India occurred at a later date. In India it found its mention in the ancient Sanskrit texts. The term yava in Sanskrit is the most frequently mentioned cereal in the earliest records of Indo-Aryans and was probably the principle staple food during the Vedic period. Barley has often been used as a model crop for genetic research because of its less chromosome number large chromosome size, easy handling and presence genetic markers etc. Barley is the most preferred grain for malt production due to various reasons, viz. (i) barley has a caryopsis with tightly adhering lemma and palea (hull) and during the malting process, the acrospire or coleoptile grows beneath the lemma and pericarp, which prevents damage to the tender shoot, (ii) the hulls form a natural filter in separating soluble materials from mash in the production of wort, (iii) hull also helps in faster absorption of moisture during steeping and (iv) the conversion of starch to dextrin s and fermentable sugars is more efficient due to the combined presence of alpha and beta amylases. Barley is likely to be cultivated more for malting in future on account of the increase in demand for raw material for malting and brewing industry in India. However its yield level is low because of poor management by farmers as well as genetic potential of the current varieties mostly bred for rainfed cultivation in marginal soils. Also the barley breeding has been for feed type barley in India and very recently work on development of malt type

2 376 Kumar et al., varieties has been initiated. To meet the farmer s as well as industry expectations there is a need for development of high yielding varieties with better malting quality so that barley cultivation can be sustained in country. The industry has recently initiated the contract farming for malt barley with premium for better quality, thus there is a great need of combining grain yield with malt quality. Therefore the present study is aimed to generate information on genetic control and combining ability for grain yield and malting quality in barley so that desirable cross combinations can be practiced to expedite this process. MATERIALS AND METHODS Six elite genotypes (released/ identified varieties: Alfa 93, DWR 28 DWR 46 RD 2503 K 551 PL 426) of barley were selected for the present study representing both two row and six row types from the collection maintained by Barley Network Unit, Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal, Haryana. These six varieties are genetically diverse representing the feed and malt types, developed by different centers for production under irrigated timely sown conditions. During Rabi all the six parental genotypes were raised in crossing block in two dates of sowing to produce F 1 seeds at the Agricultural Research Farm, Deptt. of Genetics and Breeding, J.V. College Baraut (U.P.).This farm is situated at N latitude and 71.00E longitude and receives average annual rain fall of mm. All six parents and fifteen F1s were grown during summer 2005 at I.A.R.I. R.S. Wellington (The Nilgiris), Tamilnadu for the purpose of generation advansement from F 1 to F 2 as well as to generate the backcross populations. The grain quality characters, namely, test weight (Kg/h), germinative energy in percent at 72 hours (GE %), grain protein content (GP %), proportion of bold grains (bold%), proportion of thin grains (thin%) were recorded on the bulk grain sample from each plot as per the standard EBC methods of analysis (1). In order to produce malt from the barley grain, 100 gm grain sample from each variety were malted on the Phoenix Automatic Micro malting System. The micro malting was done on a standard malting cycle of steeping (18-20 h in two stages), germination (96 h) and kilning (26-30 h). The bulk malt samples were analysed for malt yield (MY %), malt friability (MF %), hot water extract (HWE %), wort filtration rate (FR ml/hr), malt nitrogen (MN%), wort nitrogen (WN%), Kolbach index (KI), wort ph (WpH), and wort viscosity (Vis %) as per the standard EBC methods of analysis (Analytica EBC 2003). The diastatic power (DP ol) was analysed by Institute of Brewing method. The analysis of variance for different characters were performed as per (2). General combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability ( SCA ) effects and variances were estimated following (3). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The main objective of breeding programme is to achieve maximum yield and better quality potential of crop. This is possible either through elimination of a defect, or through breeding directly for increased quality yielding ability. The direct approach to enhance yielding and better quality potential simultaneously has not been very successful, because apparent negative relation between the two. Under such situation where potential genotypes are already available for farmer s fields, breeding for their further improvement is a very tedious task and requires precise knowledge regarding the nature and magnitude of total genetic variability; exist for yield and other quality traits in a particular crop. Besides, the difficulty in choosing right kind of parental combinations has also to be taken care off while planning for a breeding programme. In self-pollinated crops often genetic variation is found. The nature of genetic variability determines the type of selection to be employed for better results and therefore knowledge about the best components of genetic variance is vital to decide a breeding methodology. In view of these in this investigation an attempt was made to study the combining ability, gene effects and their interactions responsible controlling yield and malting quality traits in barley. It was suggested that the parameters estimated would be helpful in formulating suitable breeding plans to bring about rapid and rational improvement in barley quality and productivity.

3 Study on combining ability for yield, grain and malt quality in barely 377 Table-1: Analysis of variance for twenty characters in a 6x6 diallel crosses (one way) in barley. Source D.F. Height Spike Length Days to Maturity Recent development in biometrical genetics have made available a number of statistical procedures for genetic analysis. Among them the diallel analysis, various North Carolina designs and line x tester analysis are the most commonly used technique. The diallel analysis is a systematic approach and analytically it offers an overall genetic evaluation of the materials under investigation that would permit the identification, in an early generation of the crosses of best potentials (4). The mean sum of squares on twenty-characters viz-plant height, spike length, days to maturity, grain Grain 1000-Grai yield per n Weight Germ inative Energy Protein Content Hecto Litter Wt. Replication * * 16.88* * 15.00* Treatment ** 13.76** 24.86** 24.86** ** 46.78** 11.6** 27.87** 62.42** 29.32** error Table-1: Contd... Source D.F. Yield Friability Hot Water Extract Diastatic Power Filtra. Rate ph Bold Viscosity Thin Kolbach index Replication * 90.53** Treatment ** 60.72** 20.52** 60.11** ** ** 10.76** 1.35 error yield per plant, 1000 grain weight, germinative energy, protein content, malt yield, malt friability, hot water extract, wort filtration rate, test weight, bold percent, thin percent, Kolbach index, worth ph, wort viscosity, diastatic power, wort, and malt nitrogen are given in table 1. The mean sums of squares due to genotype were significant for all the characters studied except wort nitrogen, malt nitrogen and Kolbach index. This suggested that sufficient genetic variability existed among the genotype for all the characters to warrant the utility of selection, except wort and malt nitrogen. Significant value of mean square due to replications for Table-2: Analysis of variance for combining ability for twenty characters in a 6 X6 diallel crosses (one way) in barley. Source D.F. Height Spike Length Days to Maturity Grain yield per 1000 Grain Weight Germ inative Energy Protein Hecto Content Litter Wt. SCA ** 3.09* 8.74** 8.83** 16.60** 11.03** * 22.92** 15.62** GCA ** 11.47** 16.99** 12.56** 58.61** 27.24** ** 33.97** 17.00** ERROR g2i s2ij Table-2: Contd... Source D.F. Yield Friability Hot Water Extract Diastatic Power Filtra. Rate ph Bold Thin Kolbach Viscosity index SCA ** 16.04** ** 9.54** ** 0.38 GCA ** 35.13** 12.86** 32.89** 15.87** * ** 0.77 ERROR g2i s2ij

4 378 Kumar et al., Table-3: Estimation of general combining ability effects of parents for twenty characters in a 6 X6 diallel crosses (one way) in barley. Parents Height Spike Length Days to Maturity Grain yield per Grain Weight Germ inative Energy Protein Content Hecto Liter weight RD * ** 3.67* 2.92* PL * ** 3.23* * K ** -3.4* * ** -2.53* DWR * * 4.32** 6.77** 2.6* ** DWR * * 5.41** 4.08** -3.52* ALFA * -3.6* ** 6.04** gigj Table-3: Contd... Parents Yield Hot Water Diastatic Friability Extract Power Filtra. Rate ph Bold Viscosity Thin Kolbach index RD ** * 24.17** ** PL * ** ** -2.70* 2.94* 1.1 K ** 2.98* ** ** -3.40** DWR ** ** * DWR ** 2.85* 3.33* 3.27* 19.17** * ALFA * ** 14.40** * * 2.26 gigj plant height, 1000-grain weight, germinative energy, wort filtration rate, bold percent, thin percent and diastatic power, indicated effect of soil heterogeneity in experiment. Mean squares due to general combining ability (gca) were significant for all the characters studied, except protein content, wort nitrogen, wort ph and Kolbach index (table 2). Similarly, the mean squares due to specific combining ability ( SCA ) were significant for all the characters studied, except GP, test weight, wort nitrogen, malt nitrogen, wort ph and Kolbach index (table 2). This revealed the importance of both additive and non-additive genetic variance in the inheritance of these characters. The magnitude of SCA (S2ij) component was higher then gca component (g2i) for protein content (table 2). This showed the preponderance of additive genetic variances in the expression of this character. On the other hand, all other characters had higher values of gca component (g 2 i) then SCA component (S 2 ij) indicating the prevalence of non-additive genetic variance the inheritance of these characters. The relative performance of gca and SCA in determining the progeny performance was assessed by the predictability ratio. This ratio was near to unity for protein content indicating that for this character performance of the crosses can be predicted on the basis of gca alone. The other character arranged in decreasing order for the importance of the gca were plant height, spike length, days to maturity, grain yield per plant, 1000 grain weight, germinative energy, malt yield, malt friability, wort filtration rate, test weight, bold%, thin%, wort viscosity and diastatic power. The estimates of gca effects of six parent for various character are given in table 3. The three groups of traits, yield traits, grain quality traits and malt quality traits have been presented below for better understanding of combining ability behavior of parents. Yield traits In case of plant height DWR28 and ALFA93 had higher

5 Study on combining ability for yield, grain and malt quality in barely 379 Table-4: Estimates of specific combining ability effects for twenty characters in 6X6 diallel crosses (one way). Crosses Height Spike Length Days to Maturity Grain yield per 1000-Gra in Weight Germinat ive Energy Protein Content Hecto Litter Wt. RD2503 X PL * * -3.37** ** 2.64* 0.96 RD2503 X K ** ** 4.62** 4.63** 2.90* 4.00** ** RD2503 X DWR ** ** 8.10** * 6.13** RD2503 X DWR ** ** * ** 1.47 RD2503 X ALFA ** ** ** ** ** 5.95** PL426 X K ** ** -3.82** 3.20** PL426 X DWR ** ** -8.47** 6.55** * ** 1.53 PL426 X DWR ** ** -7.26** -3.43** ** -4.45** PL426 X ALFA ** ** -3.07** -2.74** ** ** 3.33** K409 X DWR ** ** 5.82** ** K409 X DWR * ** -5.63** * 5.93** 9.83** 5.86** K409 X ALFA ** ** * -2.54* ** DWR28 X DWR ** ** 8.07** 9.76** 4.18** ** 16.70** ** DWR28 X ALFA ** ** 15.95** 4.07** 4.99** ** 2.47* DWR46 X ALFA ** 2.55* -2.56* 8.73** ** -9.37** ** 6.83** Sij-Sik Sij-Skl Table-4: Contd... Crosses Yield Friability Hot Water Extract Diastatic Power Filtra. Rate Bold ph Viscosity Thin Kolbach index RD2503 X PL ** 8.77** ** ** 2.81* -2.63* -4.14** -2.65* 2.64* RD2503 X K ** 3.14** 12.32** * * RD2503 X DWR ** 3.27** ** 22.59** * RD2503 X DWR ** ** 65.71** * RD2503 X ALFA ** * -8.30** 6.47** -3.02** ** ** parpl426 X K ** -2.23* ** ** * 3.44** -2.61* 1.09 PL426 X DWR ** ** 5.71** * PL426 X DWR ** ** 58.66** -2.92** 2.77* * PL426 X ALFA ** 3.08** -3.94** 11.51** ** ** K409 X DWR ** 4.77** 3.47** 9.82** 12.28** ** -2.68* 1.06 lpark409 X DWR ** ** K409 X ALFA ** ** -3.21* * DWR28 X DWR ** 5.29** ** 20.09** ** 3.23** -2.88* DWR28 X ALFA ** ** ** 15.40** * DWR46 X ALFA ** -5.11** 4.44** ** -2.86* -2.61* -3.08** * tlparsij-sik Sij-Skl significant negative (desirable) general combining effects indicating that they are better general combiner for plant height. Parents K551, RD2503 and DWR46 with significant positive (undesirable) gca effects were poor general combiner for this trait. PL426 was average general combiners for plant height. The spike length data revealed that PL426 was good general combiner for for this trait, while RD2503, DWR28, DWR46 and ALFA93 with non significant gca effects were classified as the average general combiners. K551, with

6 380 Kumar et al., significant negative gca effects was observed as poor general combiner for spike length. The estimates of gca effects for days to maturity revealed that cultivars DWR28, DWR46 and PL426 with positive and significant gca effects were (undesirable) general combiners for days to maturity. RD2503, K551 and ALFA93 were (desirable) average general combiners for days to maturity. Significant positive gca effects were observed in all genotypes studied except ALFA93 for grain yield, indicating that all of them are good general combiner. The parent ALFA93 was poor general combiners with negative significant gca effects for grain yield. In case of 1000 grain weight trait, DWR28, RD2503, PL426 and DWR46 were good general combiners. Cultivar ALFA93 with significant negative gca effects was poor general combiners, while K551 was observed to be an average general combiner 1000-grain weight. Grain quality traits Amongst the grain quality traits RD2503 and DWR28 had higher significant positive gca effects for GE % indicating that they are good general combiners for germinative energy. DWR46 with significant negative general combining effects was poor general combiners for this trait. PL426, K551 and ALFA93 were average general combiners for this trait. In case of protein content, the gca effects for all the genotypes were non-significant indicating that all of them are average general combiners for protein content. Cultivars DWR28 and K551 with significant positive gca effects were good general combiners for bold grain %. The parents ALFA93 and PL426 were poor general combiners as they showed significant negative gca effects. DWR46 and RD2503 were average general combiners, through having negative and positive non significant gca effects, respectively. In case of thin grain %, K551 had highest significant negative (desirable) gca effect which indicate that it is the best general combiner for this character. The parent ALFA93 with significant positive general combining effects was poor general combiners for proportion of thin grain. RD2503, PL426, DWR28 and DWR46 were average general combiners for percent thin grain. Significant negative gca effects were observed for the parent PL426 for test weight, indicating that it was the poor general combiners for test weight. Rests of the parents were observed as average general combiners for test weight. quality traits Genotype K551, RD2503, DWR28 and DWR46 with significant positive gca effects were observed as good general combiners for malt yield. PL426 & ALFA93 were found poor general combiners for malt yield, through the gca effects were not significant. While for malt friability cultivars K551 and DWR46 with significant positive gca effects were good general combiner. The parents PL426 and ALFA93 were poor general combiners, as they showed significant negative gca effects. DWR28 was average general combiner for malt friability. In case of hot water extract DWR46 had significant positive gca effect, indicating that it is better general combiner for this trait. The parents RD2503, PL426, K551, DWR28 and ALFA93 were average general combiners, though having positive and negative non significant gca effects, for hot water extract. Varieties, ALFA93, DWR46 and RD2503 with significant positive general combining effects were good general combiners for diastatic power. DWR28, PL426, K551 were the average general combiners for diastatic power. The analysis for wort filtration rate indicated that the estimates of gca effects for revealed that DWR28 with highest positive and significant gca effect was found good general combiner for this character. RD2503, K551, DWR46 and ALFA93 with positive and significant gca effects were also categorized as good general combiners for wort filtration rate, while PL426 with negative significant gca effects was found poor general combiner for wort filtration rate. The estimates of gca effects for wort nitrogen revealed that RD2503, PL426 and ALFA93 were positive, but non significant indicating that they are average general combiners for wort nitrogen. The remaining genotypes were also average general combiners for wort nitrogen, but with relatively low gca values. The estimates of gca effects for malt nitrogen revealed that PL426, and ALFA93 with positive and

7 Study on combining ability for yield, grain and malt quality in barely 381 significant gca effects were found (undesirable) general combiner for malt nitrogen. K551, DWR-28, DWR46 and RD2503 were the (desirable direction) average general combiners for malt nitrogen. The estimates of gca effects for Kolbach Index, revealed that K551 with negative significant gca effect was poor general combiner. Rest parent were average general combiners for Kolbach Index, where RD2503 and ALFA93, had relatively more gca effects, which were non significant. Varieties DWR28 and DWR46 with significant and positive gca effects were good general combiners for wort ph. The parents RD2503 and PL426 were poor general combiners, as they showed negative and significant gca effects. K-409 and ALFA93 were average general combiners for wort ph. In case of wort viscosity ALFA93 with significant and negative (desirable direction) gca effects was good general combiner. The parents K551 and PL426 were poor general combiner as it showed positive and significant gca effects. RD2503, DWR28 and DWR46 were the average general combiners for wort viscosity. The estimation of specific combining ability effects for different characters are presented in table 4 and the results for each trait are presented below. 1. height : The crosses RD2503 x K551, RD2503 x DWR28, RD2503 x DWR46, PL426 x DWR28, PL426 x DWR46, K551 x DWR28, DWR28 x DWR46 and DWR46 x ALFA93 had negative and significant specific combining ability effects andpl426 x K551, PL426 x ALFA93, K551 x ALFA93 and DWR28 x ALFA93 showed positive significant specific combining ability effects for plant height. RD2503 PL 426 and K551 x DWR46 exhibited the non-significant specific combining ability effects for plant height. 2-Spike length :-RD2503 x ALFA93 combination displayed highest significant positive SCA effect, followed by DWR 46 x ALFA93. Rest of the crosses had non-significant specific combining ability effects for spike length. 3-Days to maturity :-DWR28 x ALFA93, PL426 x DWR28 and RD2503 x ALFA93 combinations displayed significant positive (undesirable direction) specific combining ability effects for days to maturity. The crosses, RD2503 x PL426, K551x DWR46, DWR28 x DWR46, and DWR46 x ALFA93 showed (desirable direction) significant negative specific combining ability effects for days to maturity and rest of combinations were having non-significant SCA effects. 4-Grain yield per :-DWR28 x ALFA93 combination displayed highest significant positive specific combining ability effects, followed by six other crosses viz, RD2503 x K551, RD 2503 x DWR28, PL426 x DWR46,K551 x DWR28, DWR28 x DWR46, DWR46 x ALFA93. RD2503 x ALFA93, PL426 x K551, PL426 x DWR28, PL426x ALFA 93, K551 x DWR46 and K551 x ALFA93 showed significant negative specific combining ability effects and only two crosses RD2503 x PL426 and RD2503 x DWR46 were having non-significant SCA effects grain weight :- Significant positive SCA estimates were observed for Six Crosses. These crosses were RD2503 x K551, RD2503 x DWR46, PL426 x DWR28, K551 x DWR28, DWR28 x DWR46 and DWR28 x ALFA93. The cross DWR28 x DWR46 with highest value of significant positive SCA effect and the crosses DWR 46 x ALFA93, K551 x DWR46, PL426 x ALFA93, PL426 x DWR46, PL426 x K551 and RD2503 x PL426 had negative significant SCA effect for this trait. 6-Germinative Energy :-Nine cross showed significant value of specific combining ability effect for this trait. Crosses DWR28 x ALFA93,DWR28 x DWR46, PL426 x K551, RD2503 x ALFA93 and RD2503 x K551 were better specific combiner for Germinative Energy significant positive SCA effects and four crosses, RD2503 x PL426, PL426 x DWR46, PL426 x ALFA 93 and DWR46 x ALFA93 were having negative significant SCA effects for Germinative Energy. 7-Protein Content :- For the protein content only two crosses viz-rd2503xk551 and PL426x DWR28 showed significant positive (undesirable) SCA effects. The three crosses K-409x ALFA-93, K551 x DWR46 and RD2503 x DWR46 had the negative significant SCA effect for this trait Rest of the crosses had non-significant specific combining ability effects for protein content. 8-Test weight:-significant SCA effects were observed for eight crosses out of these five crosses viz, RD-2503 x PL426, RD2503 x K-409, RD2503 x DWR28, K551 x DWR46, DWR28 x DWR46 exhibited specific combining ability effect in positive direction, and three crosses viz, RD2503 x ALFA93, PL426 x ALFA93, and K551 x ALFA93 showed

8 382 Kumar et al., negative SCA effect. 9-Bold % :- For proportion of bold grain only eight crosses viz RD2503 x PL426, RD2503 x DWR28, RD2503 x DWR46, PL426 x DWR28, PL426 x DWR46, K551 x DWR46, DWR28 x DWR46 and DWR28 x ALFA93 exhibited significant positive specific combining ability effects. Whereas four crosses RD2503 x ALFA93, PL426 x ALFA93, K551 x DWR28 and DWR46 x ALFA93 showed significant negative SCA effects for this character. 10-Thin % :-Nine Crosses were observed to give significant SCA effects and out of these only six crosses viz. RD2503 x ALFA93, PL426 x ALFA93, K551 x DWR46, K551 x ALFA93, DWR28 x ALFA93 and DWR46 x ALFA93 showed significant positive (undesirable direction) value of SCA effects and rest three crosses viz, RD2503 x K551, PL426 x DWR46 and DWR28 x DWR46 showed negative (desirable) SCA effects.11- Yield :-12 Grosses were observed to give significant SCA effects and out of these only nine Crosses viz. RD2503 x DWR28, PL426 x K551, PL426 x DWR28, PL426 x DWR46, K551 x DWR28, K551 x DWR46, DWR28 x DWR46, DWR28 x ALFA93 and DWR46 x ALFA 93 showed positive significant value of SCA effects. And three crosses RD2503 x PL426, RD2503 x ALFA93 and PL426 x ALFA93 showed negative significant SCA effects for malt yield. 12- Friability :-Significant specific combining ability effects were observed for ten crosses. Out of these seven crosses viz. RD2503xPL426, RD2503xK551, RD2503x DWR-28, RD 2503x DWR46, PL426 x ALFA 93, K-409x DWR 28, and DWR28 x DWR46 exhibited specific combining ability effect in positive significant direction, and three crosses showed significant negative SCA effect viz, PL 426 x K551, K 409 x ALFA 93 and DWR 46 x ALFA Hot water extract:-for hot water extract only three crosses viz RD2503 x K551, K551 x DWR28, DWR46 x ALFA93 exhibited significant positive specific combining ability effects, whereas three crosses viz. RD2503 x ALFA93, PL426 x ALFA93 and DWR28 x ALFA93 exhibited significant negative specific combining ability effects. 14-Diastatic Power :-Significant specific combining ability effects were observed for thirteen Crosses, where eight crosses viz, RD2503 x PL426, RD2503 x K551, RD2503 x DWR28, RD2503 x DWR46, PL426 x K551, PL426 x DWR28, PL426 x ALFA93 and K551 x DWR28 showed specific combining ability effect in significant positive direction and five crosses viz, RD2503 x ALFA93, PL426 x DWR46, K551 x ALFA93, DWR28 x DWR46 and DWR28 x ALFA93 showed negative SCA effect. 15- Filtration Rate: Significant SCA effects were observed in all most all the crosses for this trait. Ten crosses viz, RD2503 x DWR28, RD2503 x ALFA93, RD2503 x DWR46, PL426 x DWR28, PL426 x DWR46, K551 x DWR28, K551 x DWR46, DWR28 x DWR46, DWR28 x ALFA93 and DWR46 x ALFA93 showed significant positive value of SCA effects and four crosses viz, RD2503 x PL426, PL426 x K551, PL426 x ALFA93 and K551 x ALFA93 were indicated significant negative SCA effect. 16- :- Five crosses were observed to give significant SCA effects and only one crosses viz, RD 2503xPL426 showed significant positive (undesirable) value of SCA effects. The remaining four crosses viz, RD 2503x K551, RD-2503x AlFA 93, PL 426x DWR 46, DWR 46xALFA 93, showed significant negative value (desirable) of SCA effects. 17- : - Six crosses were observed to give significant SCA effects and out of these only four crosses Viz, RD2503 x DWR28, PL426 x K551, PL426 x DWR46, PL426 x ALFA93 showed significant positive value of SCA effects. Two crosses, viz, RD2503 x PL426 and DWR46 x ALFA93 showed significant negative value of SCA effects.18- ph:- Significant specific combining ability effects were observed for eight crosses, and out of which five grosses viz, RD2503 x ALFA93, PL426 x K551, PL426 x DWR28, K551 x DWR28 and DWR28 x DWR46 exhibited specific combining ability effect in significant positive direction and out of which three crosses viz, RD 2503x PL 426 RD -2503xDWR46, DWR46x ALFA-93 showed significant negative SCA effect.19- Viscosity:- Five crosses were observed to give significant SCA effects and out of which only two crosses viz, DWR28 x DWR46 and DWR28 x ALFA93 showed significant positive value (undesirable) of SCA effects. Whereas three crosses viz, RD2503 x PL426, PL426 x K551 and K551 x DWR28 showed significant negative (desirable) SCA effects for viscosity.20-kolbach Index:- For Kolbach Index, only two crosses viz RD2503 x PL426and K551 x ALFA93 exhibited significant positive (undesirable ) specific combining

9 Study on combining ability for yield, grain and malt quality in barely 383 ability effects. Where as five crosses viz. RD2503 x K551, RD2503 x ALFA93, PL426 x DWR46, DWR28 x DWR46 and DWR46 x ALFA93 showed significant negative (desirable) SCA effects for this character. Breeding self pollinated crops like barley for improving yield and quality requires a suitable procedure which allows accumulation of favourable in homozygous population. The concept of combining ability (5) has assumed greater importance in plant breeding as it permits the prediction of the efficiency of parents based on early generation (F 1 ) performance besides enabling to study the comparative performance of lines in hybrid combinations. (3) suggested that the gca (gca) involved additive effects, while dominance and interactions are important for specify combining ability (SCA ). A wide range of variation was observed due to gca for all the characters studied except protein content, wort nitrogen, wort ph and Kolbach index. The maximum?gca was recorded for 1000 grain weight and minimum for the Kolbach index. Similarly, there was a vide range of variation for SCA for all the characters studied except protein content, hot water extract, wort nitrogen, malt nitrogen wort ph and Kolbach index. The magnitude of the gca component was higher than SCA component for protein content. This showed the preponderance of additive genetic variances in the expression of this characters, In the present investigation, the observation on gca, SCA variance for most of the traits are in conformity with the findings of presious barley workers (6, 7). On the other hand, all other characters had higher values of SCA component than gca component indicating the prevalence of non-additive genetic variance the inheritance of these characters. The relative performance of gca and SCA in determining the progeny performance was assessed by the predictability ratio. This ratio was near to unity for protein content indicating that for grain protein performance of the crosses can be predicted on the basis of gca alone. Significant and desirable direction of gca effects was for exhibited for spike length, grain yield per plant, 1000 grain weight, germinative energy, hacto litre weight, bold %, malt yield, malt friability, wort filtration rate, hot water extract and diastatic power. Potentiality of a genotype to be used as parent in hybridization or a cross used for a commercial hybrid may be determined by comparing the per se performance of the parents, the F1 value, the F2 performance and the combining ability effects. The best two parents and their F1s, general and specify combiners for the twenty character, from which it is clear that the estimates of gca effects are highly correlated with the per se performance of the parent for most of the traits studied. Thus, per se performance for the parents may provide a reasonable indication of their gca effects for the different characters. The parents DWR 28 and ALFA-93 were superior general combiners for lower plant height, PL-426 for higher spike length, RD2503, K551 and ALFA93 were the desirable average general combiner for days to maturity, RD-2503, PL-426, DWR-28, K-409 and DWR 46 for grain yield per plant. DWR 28, RD2503 PL-426 and DWR46 good general combiners for 1000 grain weight, RD-2503 and DWR 28 for Germinative energy. All parents studied are average general combiner for protein content. The top general combiners for malt yield were K-409, RD2503, DWR 28 and DWR46 and for malt friability good general combiners were K551 and DWR46. While DWR46 was good general combiner for hot water extract, for wort filtration rate good combiners was DWR 28. Most of the parents were average general combiners except PL426 for Test weight. DWR28 and K551 for Bold% and K551 for thin %. The top general combiners for Kolbach Index was K551. For wort ph good general combiners were DWR 28 and DWR 46. ALFA93 for wort viscosity and ALFA 93,DWR46 and RD2503 for Diastatic power. DWR28, DWR46 and K551 for wort were average general combiners. With regard to malt nitrogen good combiners were RD2503, DWR28, DWR46 and K551. Considering the gca and per se performance it may be concluded that DWR46 was the best for breeding high yield and several quality traits. Other superior parents were DWR 28 and RD2503, Thus in barley breeding programme aiming at improving the yield and yield components it may be concluded that crosses involving DWR46, DWR28 and RD2503 have

10 384 Kumar et al., better probabilities to obtain transgressive segregrants in the segregating generations. Intermating among selects in the early generation may also be done for population improvement. The genotype DWR46 exhibited significant and desirable direction of gca effects for grain yield per plant, 1000 grain weight, malt yield, malt friability, wort filtration rate, hot water extract, wort ph, nitrogen and diastatic power. Similarly, DWR28 exhibited significant and desirable direction of gca effects for plant height, grain yield per plant, 1000 grain weight, germinative energy, malt yield, wort filtration rate, bold %, wort ph, nitrogen and malt nitrogen. The genotype RD2503 exhibited significant and desirable direction of gca effects for days to maturity, grain yield per plant, 1000 grain weight, germinative energy, malt yield, malt nitrogen and diastatic power. A number of crosses showed significant SCA for various characters under study. Through the parents DWR46, DWR28 and RD2503 were the best general combining parents for yield and quality traits, their F1s not exhibited the highest significant SCA effects. Hence, it is not necessary that the parents having higher estimates of gca effects would also give higher estimates of SCA effects when crossed together. In the present investigation, the observations on gca for most of the traits are in conformity with the findings of presious barley workers (8, 9). Generally the significant desirable SCA effects do not contribute much towards the improvement of self pollinated crops, if commercial exploitation of heterosis is not feasible. Among the various gene interactions, contributing towards SCA, the additive x additive type of gene interaction is fixable in later generations in self pollinated crops like barley. Thus, the ultimate aim of a breeder is to generate desirable transgressive segregants for development potential homozygous lines through hybridization, based on high per se performance and significant desirable SCA effects. Significant and desirable direction of SCA effects was observed for spike length, grain yield per plant, 1000 grain weight, germinative energy, hacto litre weight, bold %, malt yield, malt friability, hot water extract, wort filtration rate and diastatic power. In view of the above, it is apparent the crosses DWR28 x DWR46, RD2503 x K551 and DWR46 x ALFA93 proved more promising for yield and quality improvement programme and in all these crosses at least one parent is a good general combiner. In general, most of the crosses showed higher desirable SCA effects. The crosses showing high SCA effects involving one good and one poor general combiner are expected to produce desirable transgressive segregants, if the additive genetic effect of the good combiner and the complementary epistatic effect in the F1 act in the same direction for best expression of the desirable attributes. Thus for the production of hybrid varieties diverse parents showing high SCA effects should be chosen. In the present investigation, the observation on SCA for most of the traits are in conformity with the findings of previous barley workers, (8, 9). REFERENCES 1. Analytica-EBC (2003). European Brewery Convention analysis committee. Fachverlag Hans Carl, Nurnberg. 2. Panse, V.G. and Sukahtame, P.V. (1961). Statistical methods for agricultural workers.i.c.a.r., New Delhi. 3. Griffing, B. (1956) Concept of general and specific combining ability in ration to diallel crossing system. Aust. J.Biol. Sci., 9 : Johnson. L.P.V. (1963). Application of diallel cross technque to plant breeding. Statistical Genetics and Breeding. 5. Sprague, G.F. and Tatum, L.A. (1942). General vs specific combining ability in sing Soylu,-S A study of combining ability for grain yield and other agronomic characters in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Agricoltura-Mediterranea. 2002; 132(1) : 9-14 le crosses of corn. J. Americ. Soc. Agron., 34: Zeng,-Y; Chen-LiangZheng Combining ability and heterosis in forage barley. Indian-Journal-of- Genetics-and--Breeding. 2001; 61(1) : Joshi,-R-P; Singh,-A-K (2005). Combining ability for seedling traits and grain yield in barley. NKVV- Research-Journal 38(2) : Budak,-N (2000). Heterosis, general and specific combining ability estimates at F 1 and F 2 generations of a 8 x 8 diallel cross population of barley. Turkish- Journal-of-Field-Crops, 5(2) : Rivas-P,-R; Barriga-B,-P (2002). Combining ability for grain yield and malting quality traits in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Agricultura-Tecnica 62(3) :