Combining ability studies for certain quantitative characters in linseed, Linum usitatissium L.*

Combining ability for 10 characters was studied using 7 lines viz., BAU-610A, EC-384154 JRF-3, JRF-4, Polf-34, H-25 and H-22 as females and 4 testers Padmini, Parvati, Shubhra and LCK-3003 as male crossed In line x tester mating design. Analysis of combining ability revealed the existence of highly significant variation among crosses for all characters in F1 and F2 generations, respectively. The lines BAU-610A was found to be good general combiner for days to maturity, plant height, number of primary branches/plant, 1000-seeds weight, seed yield/plant, oil content, days to 50% flowering and incidence of Alternaria blight in F1 generation. However, BAU-610A had significantly positive gca effects for days to 50% flowering and incidence of Alternaria blight and poor general combiner in seed yield/plant and oil content in F2 generations. The variance due to line x tester were significant for all the characters, suggesting the presence of non-additive gene effect for these traits. The crosses BAU 610-A x Shubhra, JRF-3x Padmini, JRF-4xPadmini in F1 generation and EC-384154 x Shubhra, JRF-3 x Parvati in F2 generation were the most promising for improvement of seed yield and one or more of its component traits.