Heredity of some morphological traits of onion (Allium cepa L.)

Abstract

One of important onion bulb quality parameter is the number of closed and open juicy leaves in the bulb. The subject of this study was the comparison of F1 and F2 hybrids obtained from 5 genotypes of a different geographical origin. The method of full diallel without reciprocals has been applied in order to compare F1 and F2 progenies. Open field trial including parents and hybrids of F1 and F2 generation has been set up in a random block system, with five replications, at the Institute for Vegetable Crops, Smederevska Palanka, Serbia. The most common mode of inheritance for closed layers in the bulb was intermediary and for open layers in the bulb dominance. The additive component was lower than dominant for both analyzed traits and generation levels (F1 and F2), which proves that reaction of dominant genes has been more important for inheritance of these traits. Significant heterosis (26.49%) has been found for the number of open layers in the bulb. Three lines had significant values for general combining ability (GCA). Specific combining ability (SCA) values for three F1 hybrids were significant for total number of closed layers in the bulb. As for the total number of open juicy leaves, significant values for GCA and SCA were found for one line and for one hybrid combination, respectively.