Genetical studies for yield and oil content in Brassica juncea (L.) Czern & Coss

Combining ability analysis of eight diverse cultivars for ten characters in Brassica juncea (L.) Czern &: Coss revealed high magnitude of for most of the characters. However, was high only for plant height, siliqua length and 1000-seed weight for which high estimates of was also recorded. The parent variety PR-1108 was the best general combiner for seed yield, oil content, 1000-seed weight, plant height, number of primary and secondary branches and length of siliqua. PR-1108 was also involved in the best cross combinations for seed yield, oil content 1000-seed weight and number of branches. Glossy mutant, an early white flowered parent, showed desirable gca for early flowering, reduced plant height and it was involved in crosses with high sca for seed yield, oil content and seed persiliqua but its perse performance and gca was low. High BP heterosis was recorded in the crosses PR-1108 X 8J-679 (77.6%) and BJ-1257 x Glossy mutant (13.1%) for seed yield and oil content, respectively. Oil content was positively associated with 1000-seed weight and seed yield indicating the possibilityof simultaneous improvement for these characters, Yellow colour of corolla was dominant over white and segregated in 15:1 ratio, indicating control of duplicate genes.