Genetic analysis of yield and its biometric traits in castor (Ricinus communis L.)

Abstract

The P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1 and BC2 of five castor crosses viz., JM-6 x 48-1, JI-433 x SKI-346, JI-436 x PCS-124, SKI-346 x JI-35 and SKI-346 x SKI-215 were studied for twelve metric traits. The scaling tests revealed the importance of additive-dominance model for number of nodes up to primary raceme in JI-436 x PCS-124. The result of rest of the cases depicted the epistatic digenic model including all types of interactions played a major role for the entire cross combinations. The study revealed the importance of additive and non-additive type of gene action for all the characters studied suggesting the use of reciprocal recurrent selection or biparental mating for improving the characters in castor. Duplicate type epistasis played a greater role than complementary epistasis in most of the cases.