Genetic Analysis of Seven Wheat Genotypes and Their Hybrids Using Line × Tester Mating Design

Volume 26, Issue 2
Spring 2026
Pages 1-13

Document Type : Articles

Authors

1 Department of Medicinal and Industrial Plants, College of Medicinal and Industrial Plants, Kirkuk University, Iraq

2 Department of Plant Pathology and Plant Microbe Biology, Cornell university, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA

3 Department of Agronomy, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA

Abstract
The Comstock and Robinson design was used in this experiment, employing a line × tester mating system. The study involved four male wheat genotypes—Sham 6, Jad, Barcelona, and Adana—and three female genotypes: Abu Ghraib, Aras, and Aba 99. A total of 12 hybrids were produced and evaluated in both F₁ and F₂ generations using a Complete Randomized Block Design (CRBD) with three replications. Among the parents, Aras outperformed the others in most of the studied traits, with respective values of 90.21, 5.1, 235.29, 11.19, 42.83, 66.58, 332.50, and 20.10. The hybrids exhibited significant variation in the evaluated traits. The highest phenotypic variance was observed for grain yield per plant in both generations, reaching 30.30 in F₁ and 23.42 in F₂. Heritability for the number of effective tillers was high in the F₁ generation, reaching 0.76. Most hybrids showed statistically significant differences across the majority of traits studied. However, inbreeding depression was pronounced in hybrid (4×7) for the number of effective tillers (3.075), and in hybrid (1×5) for grain yield per plant, with corresponding harvest index values of 49.027 and 9.635. Additionally, hybrid (2×5) recorded a harvest index of 5.62. This study provides valuable insights for breeding programs and can aid in the development of improved wheat cultivars.

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