Selection of parents based on combining ability in sorghum

The combining ability was studied using L x T analysis involving 4 lines and 10 testers in grain sorghum which revealed the importance of both additive and non-additive gene actions in the inheritance of the studied traits. Non-additive gene action was observed for days to 50% flowering, plant height, leaves/plant, leaf length, leaf breadth, panicle length, panicle girth and grain, yield/plant. While additive gene action was predominant for 1000 grain weight. The lines 117-A, 116-A and testers RS-29, RS-540 and RSV-35R emerged as good general combiners for yield and yield contributing characters. Considering the per se performance, general and specific combining ability effects, the crosses viz., 116-Ax R5–67, 117-A x SPV-999 and 53-A x SPV 475 were appeared to be most promising which can be exploited for development of hybrid.