Indian Society of Genetics & Plant Breeding
Pearl millet is a nutri-cereal and is grown predominantly by
subsistence farmers in semi-arid regions of India and Africa.
Considering it’s highly cross pollinated nature and
availability of cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS), hybrids have
become a dominant cultivar type in India. Present study
aims to assess the effect of isonuclear alloplasmic A1, A4
and A5 CMS on agronomic performance of pearl millet
hybrids. Five isogenic females each having 3 alloplasmic
(A1, A4 and A5) cytoplasm were crossed with 6 male-parents
to generate 120 hybrids. All these were evaluated in two
contrasting seasons (E) in split-split-plot design. The
significant cytoplasm per se and restorer per se indicate
the both contribution to most of the traits, however, greater
magnitude of contribution arises from restorers
significantly (75% grain yield; 95% 1000-grain weight). The
significant, hybrids x E shows the mandatory of multilocation testing for yield traits while non-significant of CMS
× E interaction reveals the greater stability of CMS. Further,
non-significant mean yield differences exhibited in A1, A4
and A5 hybrids (2.84-3.14 t ha–1) indicated no adverse effect
of cytoplasm on grain yield and associated traits. Also,
diverse genetic backgrounds used in this study displayed
significant contributions to grain yield and its component
traits. These results imply the prospects for utilization of
potential alternative cytoplasm (A4 and A5) to widen the
cytoplasm base together with development of counterpart
restorers to produce future high-yielding hybrids.
Keywords: Cytoplasmic male sterility, isogenic, genetic background, hybrid
Year: 2019
Volume: 79
Issue: 1, Supplement
Article DOI: 10.31742/IJGPB.79S.1.3
Print ISSN: 0019-5200
Online ISSN: 0975-6906
Mahesh Pujar, M. Govindaraj*, S. Gangaprasad1 and A. Kanatti info_circle
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