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Heterosis and Heterozygosis in Pearl Millet Forage Production¹

Well-established inbred lines of pearl millet, Pennisetum typhoides, were used to develop seed lots with 0, 50, 75, and 100% heterozygosity. Total annual forage yields (three or four cuttings per year) from drilled plots of these seed lots in lattice-square experiments supplied the data considered. In a 3-year test, involving the four 'Gahi-1' inbreds and their six possible F₁'s and F₂'s, the F₁'s and F₂'s produced 70.9 and 33.5% more forage than their inbred parents. In three other tests involving 36, 34, and 36 hybrids, relative average F₁ and F₂ yields exceeded the parent yields by 64.5 and 31.7; 53.2 and 28.6; and 73.1 and 35.6%, respectively. In another 2-year study, where all possible seed lots with 0, 50, 75, and 100% heterozygosity were produced from four inbred lines, average relative forage yields for lots with 0, 50, 75, and 100% heterozygosity were 100.0, 122.0, 130.6, and 141.0, respectively. Thus, on the average, heterosis for forage yield in pearl millet closely paralleled the heterozygosis of the material tested.

Key Words: Pennisetum typhoides • additive gene action • epistasis • additive genetic variance • non-additive genetic variance

² Research Geneticist, Crops Research Division, ARS, USDA, and the University of Georgia College of Agriculture Experiment Stations, Coastal Plain Station, Tifton, Ga. 31794.

Received for publication September 27, 1967.

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				T. Presterl and E. Weltzien Exploiting Heterosis in Pearl Millet for Population Breeding in Arid Environments Crop Sci., May 1, 2003; 43(3): 767 - 776. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]