DECIPHERING VARIABILITY AND HETEROSIS IN BARLEY FOR SUSTAINABLE YIELD POTENTIAL

This study underscores the critical role of genetic variability and heterosis in improving the yield potential of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.).For the majority of traits, there were notable changes between the parents, hybrids, and their interactions, demonstrating the significant genetic diversity and efficacy of the selected breeding strategy.For parameters including plant height, spike length, grains per spike, tillers per plant, 1000-grain weight, and grain yield per plant, general combining ability (GCA) variants were less than specific combining ability (SCA) variances, suggesting the dominance types of gene action.Among parents, L7 is a promising genotype for higher grain yield, while L5 and L3 showed strengths in other yield-related traits.Significant SCA effects, however, highlighted the importance of non-additive gene action for several characteristics and raised the possibility of heterosis exploitation.Hybrids like L7T4 and L5T3, which exhibited superior performance in key traits, demonstrate the potential for developing high-yielding barley varieties through heterosis, whereas line L3, L7 and tester T3 showed the strongest positive GCA effects for plant height and spike length, respectively.The findings underscore the significance of dominance gene activities in barley breeding and show that careful parent selection and hybridization can result in superior hybrids with higher yield potential.