Combining ability analysis in soybean

Combining ability analysis was conducted for yield components and quality attributes in soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.). Both additive as well as nonadditive gene effects were present. However, the ratio of nonadditive/additive gene effects showed the preponderance of nonadditive gene action for the expression of all the 14 traits under study. The genotypes viz. PK 416 and Pk 564 were the best general combiners for most of the yield and quality. traits. The high performing crosses for important characters like pods per plant, yield per plant, oil content and protein content showed that in general these crosses involved low X low, medium X low and high X low general combiners. The low X low crosses giving high sca values may be due to the genetic diversity of the parents and non allelic interaction.