Combining ability in popcorn by circulant diallel

Abstract

The objective of this work was to obtain combining ability information about ten genitors of popcorn, in a circulant diallel crossing in two environments, for using in future breeding programs. The hybrids, genitors and controls were evaluated for plant height (PH), grain yield (GY) and popping expansion (PE), in a randomized complete block design with four replications. The joint analysis of circulant diallel showed reduced differences on the performance of the genotypes. The additive effects were more important than non-additive effects only for the CE. Genitors UNB2U-C1, BRS Angela, UNB2U-C2 and Viçosa-UFV were indicated for the intrapopulation breeding, while superior hybrids for the interpopulation breeding were PR-Ervália x BRS Angela and UNB2U-C1 x BRS Angela.