Variability studies in progenies of general cross combinations of sugarcane (Saccharum spp.)

Abstract

Exploitation of variability in a crop like sugarcane with a complex ploidy and a high level of heterozygosity is a complicated process. The main difficulty in improvement of sugarcane is selection at seedling stage. Further, it is a vital stage of selection because it provides the base population for remaining and more effective stages of selection. New sugarcane cultivars are developed through the selection of vegetatively propagated genotypes, obtained from true seed after hybridization of superior parents. The study was undertaken to determine the potential of general cross combinations in sugarcane, obtained by open pollinating the female parents CoSnk 05103, Co8313, Co 1148, CP 44-101 and CoSnk 03632 to generate variants for eight traits and frequency distribution pattern of variants, hence generated. 1666 seedlings raised from five general cross combinations, comprising high sugared commercial varieties were investigated. Left skewed distribution (Skewness