Identification of Heterotic Hybrids in Pearl Millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. BR.] for Yield and Yield Contributing Traits
Manish V Boratkar *
Foragen Seeds Private Limited, Hyderabad 500034, Telangana, India.
Hasanali Nadaf
Foragen Seeds Private Limited, Hyderabad 500034, Telangana, India.
Prabhakar Babu Gunturu
Foragen Seeds Private Limited, Hyderabad 500034, Telangana, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
A set of 39 pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] ) hybrids along with two checks Winner 4080 and Winner 4090 were evaluated at Deesa, Gujarat during summer season of 2024 in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with two replications to check the variability among the hybrids through PCA and cluster analysis and to identify the best performing hybrids based on standard heterosis. Analysis of variance showed significant genetic variation for all studied traits except for days to 50% flowering and number of tillers. The first three principal components having eigen value greater than one were extracted from the mean of 7 characters and they explained 69.8% variance in pearl millet hybrids. A variance of 34.1%, 19.0% and 16.6% were extracted from first, second and third principal components, respectively. Ward’s method of hierarchical clustering based on seven quantitative traits grouped 41 hybrids into ten clusters with clear differentiation for different quantitative traits. Cluster 1, 5, 6 and 10 were grouped the high yielding hybrids, therefore, breeders can use these hybrid parents for their line development program as well as hybrid development program.
The standard heterosis ranged from -48.5% to 96.6% for grain yield. The hybrids viz., PMGH-5, PMGH-24, PMGH-26, PMGH-29, PMGH-31 and PMGH-32 recorded the highest standard heterosis for grain yield kg ha-1. These hybrids also exhibited desirable heterosis for important yield attributes suggesting that the heterosis for grain yield (kg ha-1) was associated with heterosis for component characters. Thus, these hybrids can be commercially exploited through heterosis breeding programme after testing in multi-location trial to work out its stability and in diseases screening trial to find out its resistance capacity against major pearl millet diseases in order to achieve hybrids with high grain yield in pearl millet.
Keywords: Pearl millet, PCA, diversity, clusters, heterosis