Abstract

Cotton is essential fiber and cash crop in Pakistan and known as “King of fiber” due to its worldwide prompting qualities in agricultural and textile sector. Climatic variability along with the advent of new epidemic diseases induced yield loss in last few years. Biotic and abiotic stress considerably reduced the performance and yield potential of cotton. Suitable breeding strategies are essential to generate useful genetic variations and to identify desired traits. Genetic variability is beneficial tool for the plant researchers to exploit and produce advanced genetic hybrids for high yield and better quality. Hence this research experiment was conducted to investigate the genetic inheritance pattern of morphological and phenological parameters of earliness and seed cotton yield related traits in upland cotton at university of agriculture Faisalabad. A complete diallel cross pattern was used to evaluate the five parental lines along with their all F1 crosses in an experimental field under randomize complete block design (RCBD) with two replications. Statistical analysis showed significant variation among all the evaluated parameters. Mean square estimate of GCA exhibited significant difference in almost all the traits except plant height, internodal distance, seed index, node number of first sympodial branch and total number of bolls picked, whereas SCA mean square was found significant in plant height, earliness index, GOT% and seed cotton yield. However combining ability analysis manifested that SCA variance was higher for plant height, seed cotton yield, earliness index, days to first flowering, GOT% which indicated the preponderance of non-additive gene action. Whereas GCA variance was higher for total number of nodes, boll maturation period and number of sympodial branches per plant which showed the prevalence of additive type of gene action. The parent KZ-189 was reported as prominent general combiner for seed cotton yield, parent C-26 for boll maturation period and Kehkshan for GOT% and many other earliness parameters. However specific cross combinations C-26×FH-313 was found prominent specific combiner for boll weight and seed cotton yield.