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Abstract

Ten bread wheat cultivars were crossed in a half-diallel scheme in spring 2000. Parents and their 45 F1 hybrids were planted in field and greenhouse in a randomized complete block design whit 6 replications in 2001. Both in the field and in greenhouse, two moisture schemes were applied: three of the replications in each set were under normal irrigation condition, and three of them were under moisture stress. Several quantitative traits were studied in the field; however, in the greenhouse experiment only root dry weight was measured. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences between genotypes for majority of traits. Additive and non-additive gene effects were found for the traits under study. Heritabilities of various traits were calculated. General combining ability (GCA) for parents and specific combining ability (SCA) for the F1 hybrids, as well as the ratio of GCA variance to SCA variance, were estimated. In the normal moisture conditions, non-additive gene effects were observed for number of spikelets, biomass, seeds per spike, seed yield, seed weight, 50% heading date, flag leaf area, number of stomata, and harvest index. However, for other traits, namely peduncle length, spike length and root weight, additive gene effects played major role. In the moisture stress condition, non-additive gene actions were effective for most traits but peduncle length which showed additive gene effect. One of the aims of this research was evaluation of the genetic control of the related traits to drought resistance and calculation of the ratio of GCA to SCA variance in normal and moisture condition.

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