Dissecting Inheritance Patterns in Castor (Ricinus communis L.) Using Generation Mean Analysis

Abstract

The present study was carried out to estimate gene effect for seed yield and its component characters in four crosses of castor (Ricinus communis L.). The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among different crosses and among different generations within cross for all the characters studied. In the present study, the scaling tests revealed the importance of additive-dominance model for number of nodes up to primary raceme in SKP 84 x SKI 215. However, both additive and non-additive gene actions were found to be important for the expression of seed yield and most of its component traits indicating that intermating among the selected segregants to break the undesirable linkage followed by one or two generations of selfing could facilitate the accumulation of favorable alleles for the improvement of these traits. However, some of the characters in various crosses were governed by fixable (additive and additive x additive) gene effects and hence, these characters could be improved through pedigree method of selection. Duplicate type epistasis played a greater role than complementary epistasis in most of the cases.