Combining ability and potential of wheat segregating populations for tropical environment

Abstract

Estimating the combining ability in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) parents is a crucial tool for selecting promising segregating populations with potential to generate genotypes adapted to the Brazilian tropical regions, supporting the wheat production expansion. This study aimed to estimate the general and specific combining abilities of wheat parents and segregating populations, in order to develop progenies with greater genetic potential for tropical environment. During the winter harvest, nine parents and 20 F2 populations obtained through a partial diallel mating scheme (4 × 5) were evaluated using a randomized complete block design, with two replications. The evaluated traits included days to heading, plant height, tan spot, leaf rust, number of spikelets per spike, 100-grain mass and grain yield. The data were processed using diallel analysis. The general combining ability (GCA) effect was significant for days to heading, leaf rust and 100-grain mass in the group 1, and for leaf rust, number of spikelets per spike and grain yield in the group 2. The specific combining ability was significant for 100-grain mass, with the crosses TBIO Aton × ORS Madrepérola and TBIO Astro × ORS Madrepérola standing out, with at least one parent showing a high GCA for this trait. Additive genetic effects predominated in the expression of the evaluated traits. The parents TBIO Astro and ORS Destak were identified as promising for deriving tropical wheat progenies with higher genetic potential.

KEY-WORDS: Triticum aestivum L., promising progenies, genetic potential.