Genetic analysis of pod yield and its components in groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

A diallel analysis in groundnut was carried out from an eight-parent diallel cross excluding reciprocals to obtain information on the genetic architecture of pod yield and five of its component attributes. Both additive and dominance gene actions were important for all the characters; however, the magnitude of dominance was higher than additive component. The mean degree of dominance (H-1/D)(1/2) was found more than unity, confirming the presence of over dominance for all the characters. This suggests that heterosis breeding is worthwhile to get higher gain in groundnut but it is not economically feasible. The positive and negative genes were asymmetrically distributed among the parental lines. The number of dominant genes was more than the recessive genes for all the characters except 100-kernel weight. The narrow sense heritability was found to tie high for all the traits except 100-kernel weight.