EVALUATION OF COMBINING ABILITY AND HETEROSIS IN VARIOUS TRAITS OF ZEA MAYS HYBRIDS

The selection of parents and superior genotypes is a primary task for plant breeders. In line x tester mating design, seven lines and three testers were crossed to create twenty-one hybrids. The hybrids and parents were evaluated together in the field for various yield and yield related traits at maturity under water stress conditions. The variance assessment implies prominent contrasts between the lines, and testers, crosses for various traits. The differences for GCA and SCA were observed significant for the traits. The line WM13RA and OH33-1 showed the highest general combining ability for most of the traits. The cross combination WM13RA C x Agati85 provided the highest positive better parents heterosis. Specific combining ability was also high, ML17 x Agati85 and ML3 x Agati85 produced higher grain yield in term of said production of early maturing hybrids. Concerning molecular component, ten SSR primers were used to check the hybrid purity. One primer showed the polymorphism with parents and hybrids, results showed that seventeen hybrids were confirmed based on the presence of the polymorphic bands. Genetic purity was 80.95%.