Combining Ability Analysis for Quality Traits in Selected Rice Varieties (Oryza sativa L.)

Fifteen hybrid combinations developed by crossing five lines and three testers were assessed for milling and physio-chemical qualities to evaluate the combining ability of the parents using a line x tester design. This investigation provided information about the general combining ability (GCA) of parents and the specific combining ability (SCA) effects of crosses from eight popular inbred varieties. C70 was considered the best general combiner for the head rice recovery trait, while the crosses involving C70 with DH18 and CR203, 13/2 with TBR225 and Xi23, and OM6976 with TBR45 showed significant positive specific combining ability (SCA) effects. Xi23 and OM6976 among the lines showed significant general combining ability (GCA) effects indicating them to be good general combiners for obtaining hybrids with desirable (low or intermediate) properties of amylose content. The variances due to SCA were of greater magnitude than GCA for all the traits, revealing the preponderance of non-additive gene action for all the studied attributes. In all the studied quality traits, the narrow sense heritabilities were ordered as follows: head rice recovery > amylose content > gel consistency > alkali digestion > hulling percentage > milling percentage. The narrow sense heritabilities in these traits were quite low, ranging from 8.11% to 14.4%. Among the eight parents, C70, Xi23, and TBR225 were the most ideal for high-quality line breeding.