Genetics of stability and adaptability of rice hybrids (Oryza sativa L.) for grain quality traits

An experiment was conducted during 2011-12 at three environments namely, Aduthurai (E1), Coimbatore (E2) and Bhavanisagar (E3) to assess the stability of thirteen different grain quality traits among the 40 CMS hybrids of rice (Oryza sativa L.). ANOVA of Eberhart and Russell revealed that, performance of different hybrids fluctuated significantly from their respective linear path of response to environment. Most of the grain quality parameters showed non-significant mean squares except hulling percentage, milling percentage, head rice recovery, gel consistency and volume expansion ratio, indicating the influence of genotype x environment (G x E) interactions on these five grain quality measures. The genotype x environment (linear) interaction component showed significance for hulling, milling percentage, head rice recovery, gel consistency and volume expansion ratio showed the influence of locations on the expression of these parameters. Hybrids combinations viz., COMS23A x AD08009R, COMS24A x IET20898R, CRMS31A with IET20897R, IET20898R, AD06084R and AD09533R were found to be stable over locations with high mean, around unit regression (bi) and least deviation from regression line (S2di) for hulling percentage. For gel consistency, COMS23A x IET20937R, COMS23A x AD09216R, COMS23A x AD09216R, COMS25A x IET20937R and CRMS31A x AD09223R are the hybrids showed below average stability as these hybrids posses greater mean, less than unit regression (bi>1) and non significant deviation from regression (S2di) and may be suitable for E3(Bhavanisagar).   Key words: Oryza sativa, genotype x environment, hybrids.