Identification of Fertility Restorers and Maintainers in Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millspaugh)

Abstract

An investigation was carried out at ICRISAT, Patancheru, Hyderabad, during kharif season of 2013-14 to study identification of the fertility restorers (R-line) and maintainers (B-line) in pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) genotypes and standard heterosis in pigeonpea hybrids. A total of 20 hybrids were generated by hand pollinating five CMS-lines with 11 male lines from diverse sources during 2012-13 kharif season. In kharif 2012-13 also study was done for effectiveness of these five CMS lines. The study confirmed the existence of high level of male sterility (99.60 to 95.69%) in all five CMS lines used in crossing programme. The studies on fertility restoring capacity of 11 male lines on these five CMS lines were ranged from 59.22 to 98.50% and ICPL 87119 was one of the best restorer. Among 22 genotypes, ICPA 2043 x ICPL 87119 required minimum number of days to 50% flowering and it was significantly earlier over mean performance and check Asha. Pigeonpea is a considered as quantitative short-day flowering plant i.e., onset of flowering is hastened as the day-length reduces. Moreover, both low and high temperature may also delay flowering in pigeonpea. Out of 22 genotypes, check Maruti was the earliest to mature, while ICPA 2048 x ICPL 20093 exhibited maximum number of days to mature. All the hybrids were taller than both the checks (Asha and Maruti) except ICPA 2078 x ICPL 87119. Most of the hybrids were showed high number of primary and secondary branches per plant with respect to check Asha. Among the hybrids, ICPA 2092 x ICPL 20108 had the highest number of pods plant-1. Including 22 genotypes, all hybrids showed higher mean performance for number of sees pod-1 over checks Maruti and Asha. Most of the hybrids performed good for 100 seed weight and Seed yield plant-1. In this study, positive heterosis for grain yield plant-1 was noticed which may be attributed to one or more yield components. For grain yield plant-1, 18 hybrids showed significant positive standard heterosis over Maruti and eight hybrids showed significant positive standard heterosis over Asha