Heterosis in relation to genetic divergence in minicore collections of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Genetic analysis in chickpea using twelve lines belonging to high, medium and low diversity groups from different inter and intra cluster and four testers having high per se productivity was carried out to study heterosis in relation to genetic diversity for yield and yield attributes. Significant variation for all the characters was noticed except number of primary branches per plant among parents. Parents versus hybrid interaction effect was highly significant for all the characters. The hybrids ICC 6279 x ICC 13124, ICC 15697 x ICC 13124, ICC 6877 x ICC 7315 and ICC 6877 x ICC 10755 exhibited negative significant mid parent heterosis for earliness. Twenty seven hybrids showed positive significant mid parent heterosis for number of pods per plant and the magnitude of heterosis values was high with the highest value of 119.61 per cent. Nearly 85-90 per cent hybrids showed significant positive mid parent heterosis for seed weight. The degree of heterosis for seed yield varied considerably Out of 48 hybrids, 19 exhibited significant positive mid parent heterosis, whereas three exhibited significant positive heterosis over mid parent. The top three potential hybrids over mid parent were ICC 6877 x ICC 2072, ICC 2507 x ICC 2072 and ICC 6877 x ICC 7315. Study of relationship between divergence of the parents and heterosis in the hybrids revealed that the parents separated by D-2 values of high to medium magnitude generally showed higher heterosis for different characters. This indicate the role of both heterosis and genetic diversity of parents in realizing higher yield in chickpea.