Abstract:
The gene effects for grain yield and its components including grain characters were studied using parental,
F„ F2, BC, and BC2 generations in five crosses of aromatic rice involving induced mutants and 'basmati'
varieties. Epistasis was noticed in the majority of characters for all crosses. Additive and dominance effects
had major role in most of the crosses for the expression of plant height, days to flowering, panicle number
per plant, panicle length, spikelet fertility per cent, grain length, grain length/breadth ratio, test weight and
grain yield per plant. Among interactions, additive x additive and dominance x dominance effects were
almost equally important, while additive x dominance was less important than the other genetic effects for
the inheritance of traits. Duplicate type of epistasis was observed in most of the traits studied. In general,
both additive and non-additive gene action were important for the expression of almost all characters
studied. Biparental mating, recurrent selection and diallel selective mating system could be used to obtain
desirable recombinations like reduced height high yielding aromatic plants with long slender grains similar
to'basmati'type.
