GENE ACTION FOR YIELD AND YIELD ATIRIBUTING TRAITS IN MUNGBEAN (VIGNA RADIATA (L.) WILCZEK

The nature of gene effects for yield and its components was analyzed in four crosses involving seven diverse genotypes of mungbean through generations means analysis. Presence of additive, dominance and epistatic gene effects were observed in almost all the crosses, indicating importance of both additive and non-additive gene actions for the expression of the characters namely days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of primary branches, number of secondary branches, number of pod per plant, pod length, seeds per pod, 100-seeds weight and yield per plant. Duplicate type of epistasis was prevalent in most of the crosses. However, in certain crosses, e.g. BDYRI × HUM 1 for plant height and 100-seed weight and in PDM 84–139 × Pusa Bold 1 for pods per plant, additive and non-additive gene actions were important for the expression of the traits suitable breeding strategies were suggested for improvement of yield in mungbean crop.