Comparative performance of diallel, partial dialled and line x tester mating designs in selection of parental lines in basmati rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Comparative performance of extensively used mating designs was studied for their ability to discriminate parental line with good or poor general combining ability in a set of crosses involving nine parents of indica rice. Based on the general combining ability estimates for 24 agro-morphological and quality characters, dialled analysis (Griffing, 1956) discriminated the maximum number of parents as good or poor combiners irrespective of method used. Partial diallel analysis with either sample size (four or six), sorted minimum number of parents with positively or negatively significant GCA effects. The line x tester analysis varied with the change of tester parents. Using testers with broader genetic base line x tester analysis could identify relatively large number of good or poor combining parents. Among the diallel, partial diallel and line x tester mating designs, diallel design emerged most effective followed by line x tester design with broad based testers for selection of better parental line for recombination breeding.