Determination of combining ability in Ethiopian Mustard (Brassica carinata) parents according to line x tester analysis

Abstract

This research was conducted to determine the parents and hybrids with superior general and specific combining ability in 20 F-1 hybrids, including five female lines and four male testers. In the study, five advanced lines were used as female parents and four registered varieties were used as male parents to cross, resulting in 20 F-1 hybrids according to line x tester mating design during the 2021-2022 growing season. The 20 crosses and nine parents were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with three replications during 2022-2023 growing season. The results showed that the BC10 and BC22 lines had the highest general combining ability in terms of seed yield, while the Awassa tester had the highest general combining ability in terms of pod number per plant and seed yield. However, BC10 x Saryan, BC13 x Awassa and BC21 x Awassa hybrid combinations showed the highest specific combining ability in seed yield. It was stated that both additive and non-additive gene effects were efficacious for yield and several key yield components in the hybrid progenies. The promising hybrid combinations BC10 x Saryan (48.72**), BC21 x Awassa (126.74**) and BC13 x Awassa (127.83**) exhibited positive significant heterosis for seed yield.