Genetic analysis of yield and yield components in intraspecific crosses of Gossypium hirsutum L

Combining ability analysis was conducted for yield and yield components in line x tester involving 5 lines and 3 testers. Combining ability variances for GCA of lines and SCA variances were highly significant for boil number and seed cotton yield per plant, suggesting the importance of additive and non-additive type of gene action for these traits. The cultivar BH-36, CIM-240 and CYTO-129 exhibited significant GCA effects for boil number and S-12 and CYTO-129 for seed cotton yield. The female parent CYTO-129 proved to be good general combiner for bell number and seed cotton yield per plant. SCA effects of the crosses S-12 x CRIS-52, CIM-240 x CYTO 129 and NH-26 x NIAB-78 were considerably high for number of bells and seed cotton yield per plant. Hence, while breeding varieties for high yield these crosses should be considered.