Efficiency of intermating in F2 generation of an intervarietal cross in breadwheat

The North Carolina design I was attempted in F2 generation of a wheat cross. The plants involved in the crosses were also selfed simultaneously to obtain F3 progenies. The effectiveness of biparental mating was compared with conventional breeding method. The biparental progenies had superior mean performance than the F3 for yield/plant, tillers/plant, grains/spike, grain weight, harvest index, spike length and spikelets/spike. Plant height was reduced on intermating. The range, variance, heritability and genetic advance were higher in BIPs for all the characters studied except plant height. Additive genetic variance was significant for all the characters, whereas dominance variance was significant for spikelets/spike only. Altered correlations indicated that linkages were broken on intermating. The utility of biparental matings in early segregating generations in wheat is emphasized.