GENERATION MEAN ANALYSIS FOR YIELD, ITS COMPONENTS FOR PROTEIN CONTENT IN RICE (Oryza sativa L.)

Rice is one of the most crucial food crops in the world, its demand can only be met by maintaining steady increase in production over the years. The knowledge of the nature of gene action helps in the development of high yielding varieties with enhanced nutrients considered for further increasing the production and productivity of rice for not only ensuring food security but also nutritional security.The system of breeding that can be employed for exploiting any character depends upon the type of gene action involved for its expression. The type and magnitude of gene effects differed for different characters in the same cross and for the same character in different crosses, which necessitates specific handling of individual cross in segregating generations. In the present investigation, non-allelic (epistasis) interaction played pertinent role in determination of various characters which are studied. Thus, breeding methods involving high volume crossing like biparental and diallel selective mating systems that take care of additive and non-additive gene action seemed more promising for the improvement of various characters studied in the present investigation.