Effects of cytoplasm on heterosis and combining ability for agronomic traits in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Summary Effect of sterilizing (WA) cytoplasm on heterosis and combining ability for days to flowering, plant height and grain yield in rice was studied in 70 crosses and their reciprocals produced by 10 cytoplasmic male sterile (A), their maintainer (B) and seven restorer (R) lines following line x tester design. The materials consisting of 140 hybrids (70 A/R and their reciprocal 70 R/B) plus 17 parental lines (10 B + 7 R) were evaluated under six environments, created by growing in three fields with different fertilizer doses (0, 60, 120 kg N/ha) and 2 seasons (dry and wet) during 1986 at IRRI farm. Reciprocal cross effect (A/R vs R/B) were highly significant for all the three traits. Interaction of reciprocal cross effects with environments were also highly significant for yield and days to flowering. Cytoplasmic effect for yield, days to flowering and plant height were estimated by comparing A/R and R/B combination and testing the significance of difference with LSD value. In order to avoid confounding effect of spikelet sterility on yields, twenty crosses showing normal spikelet fertility were selected. Both positive and negative cytoplasmic effects were observed for the three traits. The effects were modified by environments, except for plant height. Heterosis for all three traits was also affected by cytoplasm, however, manifestation of cytoplasmic effects was higher for heterosis for days to flower than in heterosis for yield and plant height. Effect of cytoplasm was more pronounced on general combining ability effects of parents than specific combining ability effects of crosses. Among the parents two CMS lines A4 (IR54752A) and A8 (IR22107-113-3-3A) and two R lines: R2 (IR46) and R7 (IR9761-19-1) showed consistent positive effect of cytoplasm on general combining ability. These lines have given several good heterotic combinations. The study indicated the usefulness of evaluating diverse cytoplasmic sources in various nuclear genotypes bred for hybrid rice breeding program.