Combining ability & heterosis for grain yield & quality traits in maize

Eight yellow maize inbreds were utilized in making twenty eight crosses and twenty eight reciprocalcrosses in a complete diallel mating system. These fifty six cross combinations and eight parentalgenotypes alongwith three checks were evaluated in a randomized block design in the year 2010. Thecrops growth period was from 8^th February to 30^th May. Observations were recorded for six characters intwo replications. The mean observation data were used for analysis of variance, heterosis estimation, diallel analysis and combining ability following Griffing's (1956) method-I and model-I. Six characterswere studied including five quality parameters and one yield parameter. Analysis of variance for sixcharacters revealed significant difference among genotypes for all the characters. All the genotypes, F1sand reciprocals were found significant for all the characters. The estimated variance components ofcombining ability revealed that the magnitude of sca variance was higher than that of gca variance forall the characters. Out of this the cross K1105 × CM151 showed highly significant maximum positivereciprocal effect in analysis. The crosses CM153 × BAUMI-2 and CM153 × K1105 expressed maximumpositive heterosis over check Vivek hybrid-9 for grain yield.