Estimation of heterosis and dominance deviation for seed cotton yield, its components characters in upland cotton.

A line x tester analysis was undertaken to estimates the magnitude of heterosis and dominance deviation in Gossypium hirsutum L. for yield, its components and other matricate characters in 60 test entries including (44 F1s along with 15 parents and 1 standard check hybrid). Analysis of variance indicated the significant difference among the parents and hybrids for all 12 characters studied which revealed existence of variability among the genotypes. Studies revealed that out of 44 cross combinations, only 3 hybrids viz., BC-68-2 x MCU 11, BC-68-2 x AC 738 and BN 1 x Reba-B-50 depicted significant and positive heterosis over standard check hybrid G. Cot. Hy. 12. The hybrid BC-68-2 x MCU 11 exhibited significant positive standard heterosis for seed cotton yield per plant and other attributing characters i.e. total number of bolls per plant, average boll weight, lint yield per plant and lint index. The mean values of potence ratio in all twelve characters suggested that degree of dominance was governed by over dominance genes for the expression of all the characters under study.