Combinatorial analysis of agronomic characters in soybean

Abstract

Evaluation of the genetic potential of parent plants is fundamental for obtaining superior populations with desirable agronomic characters. The aim of this work was to obtain estimates of the general and specific combining abilities of five soybean parents to identify the most promising parents and hybrid combinations for the development of superior genotypes for grain yield. In this study, two groups of soybean cultivars were selected: group I resistance (UFUS 7910 and BR/MG 46 Conquista) and group II (TMG 4182, TMG 4185 and BRSGO Chapadões). The parents were crossedin a 2 x 3 partial diallel scheme, and the experiment was analyzed according to Griffing’s (1956) parent and F1 model and adapted by Geraldi and Miranda Filho (1988). Six hybrid combinations and respective parents were arranged in randomized complete blocks with four repetitions. The following characters were evaluated: number of days for flowering and maturity, height of the plant in flowering and at maturity, number of nodes in flowering and at maturity, number of total pods and grain yield per plant. The BR/MG 46 Conquista, UFUS 7910 and BRSGO Chapadões parents contributed to obtaining productive segregant populations due to additivity for the total number of pods and grain yield per plant. The hybrid combinations BRSGO Chapadões x BR/MG 46 Conquista, BRSGO Chapadões x UFUS 7910 and TMG4182 x BR/MG 46 Conquista are promising for obtaining populations with high productive potential.