Estimation of Heterobeltiosis and Character Associations for Yield and Yield Attributing Traits in Bread Wheat (triticum Aestivum L.) Genotypes

The study involves 29 parents and their 92 F 1s laid out in RBD with three replications.ANNOVA for all the traits were found significantly variable at varying levels of significance.Highest heterobeltiosis of -10.22% for days to heading, 26.80% for grain yield and 25.46% for thousand grain weight were exhibited by BHU 31 × BHU 3, 6HPYT 416 × HUW 510 and HPVS 2 × BHU 3. Thus selection for these traits would be beneficial for indirect selection of grain yield.The crosses HPVS 1 × HUW 510, BHU 3 × BHU 6, 7HPAN 76 × BHU 3 and 6HPYT 407 × HD 3118 should be considered for the selection of homozygous lines in segregating generations with highest grain number per ear and biomass.Since these traits are controlled by additive genetic variance and biomass is significantly and positively associated with grain yield hence grain yield may improve.Grouping of top five cross combinations for five different yield contributing traits were made however; no F 1 alone gave satisfactory performance among all traits but it was observed that BHU 3, BHU 6 and BHU 35 were common parents which produced top F 1s for most of the traits.