The Genetic Analysis of Germination and early seedling Stage Traits in Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Using Half Diallel Mating Design

10.58928/j2931.2026.166287.1463

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 20 August 2026

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 department of Biotechnology and crop Science, university of Sulaimani, iraq

2 Department of Biotechnology and Crop Science, College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Sulaimani, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Abstract
A half-diallel mating design was employed, crossing six diverse wheat varieties to generate 15 F1s hybrids. Both the hybrids and parents were assessed under laboratory conditions for traits including root length, shoot length, root and shoot weight, germination rate, germination speed, mean germination time, and seedling weight. Griffing's Method II, Model I, was employed to analysis the data and estimation the data in order to estimate general combining ability (GCA), specific combining ability (SCA), heritability, and the average degree of dominance. This approach provides a fixed-effect analysis of genetic components. Significant genetic diversity was indicated by the analysis of variance, which showed highly significant genotypic differences for every trait. For the majority of features, the GCA impacts were very significant, demonstrating the significance of additive gene action. Parent Jihan was shown to be a good general combiner for root length 15.818mm, while Parent AR89 showed positive GCA for germination rate and germination speed 3.264 and 2.455 days, respectively. Significant SCA effects were also observed, showing the role of non-additive gene action. Crosses Sulaimani2 × Dink and Monaliza × AR89 exhibited desirable SCA for root length and germination rate (20.620mm and 3.113) and (10.174mm and 3.988), respectively. All traits had high estimates of broad-sense heritability, but estimations of narrow-sense heritability ranging from moderate to low indicated that both additive and non-additive gene effects govern these traits. The results demonstrate that selective breeding based on early seedling traits is feasible. The identification of parents with strong GCA provides a source of favorable additive genes, while specific cross combinations with high SCA offer potential for developing hybrid varieties. This genetic information is valuable for accelerating wheat breeding programs aimed at improving seedling vigor and establishment under abiotic stress conditions.

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