Obcordate leaf shape hybrid parental line development

Abstract

Quality hybrid production is the key requisite in the commercial hybrid production. The genetically uniform parental lines and commercial hybrids are necessary in production and marketing of quality hybrid crops. Grow out test in pigeonpea is more resource intensive in terms of time and labour due to its long generation turnover time. Considering this constraint, efforts were made to incorporate an easily identifiable morphological marker [naked eye polymorphism (NEP)] in female parents to track the purity of the female parent and hybrids. The obcordate leaf shape used as NEP is a highly heritable trait with single recessive genetic control. To develop hybrid technology based on NEP, the obcordate leaf marker was transferred to A-lines through backcrossing. The objective of this study was to identify obcordate male sterile lines with good general and specific combining ability and identification of heterotic hybrids with disease resistance.