Genetic basis of heterosis and inbreeding depression in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

The genetic basis of heterosis was studied through mid-parent, standard variety and better parent for 11 quantitative traits in 17 parental lines and their 10 selected hybrids in rice (Oryza sativa L.). The characters were plant height, days to flag leaf initiation, days to first panicle initiation, days to 100% flowering, panicle length, flag leaf length, days to maturity, number of fertile spikelet/panicle, number of effective tillers/hill, grain yield/10-hill, and 1000-grain weight. In general the hybrids performed significantly better than the respective parents. Significant heterosis was observed for most of the studied characters. Among the 10 hybrids, four hybrids viz., 17Ax45R, 25Ax37R, 27Ax39R, 31Ax47R, and 35Ax47R showed highest heterosis in 10-hill grain yield/10-hill. Inbreeding depression of F2 progeny was also studied for 11 characters of 10 hybrids. Both positive and negative inbreeding depression were found in many crosses for the studied characters, but none was found significant. Selection of good parents was found to be the most important for developing high yielding hybrid rice varieties.