Assessment of Heterosis in Durum Wheat F1 Hybrids under Field Conditions

An experiment was conducted to investigate the heterosis in 12 F1 hybrids of durum wheat using agronomic and morphological traits. Parents were selected according to the estimated genetic distances based on the results of a two-year field experiment, which were then crossed to produce F1 hybrids. Twenty-three genotypes (including 11 parents and 12 hybrids) were evaluated using a randomized complete block design with three replications Research Farm of College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, located at Lavark, Najaf- Abad in 2003. Agronomic characteristics comprised days to 50% flowering, days to 50% pollination, days to maturity, plant height, spike length, grain weight per spike, number of grain per spike, number of spike per m2, 1000-grain weight, biological yield, grain yield and harvest index. The results of analysis of variance showed significant differences among parents F1 hybrids and parents vs. crosses for all the studied traits. Substantial differences in the level of heterosis for plant maturity were detected among the hybrids with the highest heterosis belonging to HPI40100×PI40099 and HEupoda6× Chahba88 hybrids. Furthermore, superior hybrids included HAltar84/Ald×Chahba88, HBuchen7×Chahba88 and HEupoda6×Mexi75/Vic possessing the highest heterosis for grain yield and grain yield components among 12 hybrids of the present experiment. Eventually, it is concluded that Eupoda6, Odin12, Altar84/Ald and 45063Karaj genotypes when crossed with Mexi75/Vic genotype as well as Buchen7 and Altar84/Ald genotypes when crossed with Chahba88 genotype produced superior F1 hybrids.