The basic material consisted of two elite parents, namely HA 4 and HA 5 (Table 1). Both HA 4 and HA 5 are high yielding pure-lines cultivars released for commercial production of dolichos bean in eastern dry zone of Karnataka, India. While HA 4 produce relatively fewer branches, racemes and large-sizedcurved pods bearing large-sized grains, HA 5 produce relatively many branches, racemes and small-sized pods bearing small-sized grains (Table 1). The objective was to develop new pure-lines that producea large number of branches, racemes and large-sized pods and grains. Reciprocal crosses, namely HA 4 × HA 5 and HA 5 × HA 4 were synthesized during 2020 rainy season at the experimental plots of the Department of Genetics and Plant breeding (GPB), University of Agricultural Sciences, (UAS), Bangalore, India. A total of 20 and 15 well-filled F
1 seeds could be obtained from HA 4 × HA 5 and HA 5 × HA 4 crosses, respectively. The F
1 seeds were planted in 2020 post rainy season. All the F
1 seeds germinated and survived to maturity. The F
1 plants of the two reciprocal crosses were carefully inspected for the traits specific to male parents to confirm their true hybridity. Indeterminate growth habit of all the 20 candidate F
1 plants of HA 4 × HA 5 cross confirmed their true hybridity considering that indeterminacy is dominant over determinacy (Modha
et al., 2019; Basanagouda
et al., 2022). Production of curved pods (typical pod shape of HA 4) by all the 15 candidate F
1 plants of HA 5 × HA 4 confirmed their true hybridity considering that curved pod shape is dominant (
Girish and Byregowda, 2009) over straight pods (typical pod shape of HA 5). The selfed pods from F×’s of the reciprocal crosses were harvested, hand-threshed and sun-dried to obtain F
2 seeds. F
2 plants from these two crosses were raised in 2021 summer season. A spacing of 0.3 m was maintained between F
2 plants of the reciprocal crosses. A total of 236 and 225 F
2 plants from HA 4 × HA 5 and HA 5 × HA 4 crosses, respectively survived to maturity. Selfed pods from each F
2 plants were manually harvested, hand-threshed and seeds were sun-dried for use in raising F
2:3 populations during 2021 rainy season. The seeds ofthe two parents and randomly selected 144 F
2:3 families derived from each of the HA 4 × HA 5 and HA 5 × HA 4 crosses were planted in asingle row of 3 m length in alpha-lattice design using two replications during 2021 post rainy season. Fifteen-days after planting, seedlings of two parents and 144 F
2:3 families were thinned to maintain a spacing of 0.3m between the plants and 0.6m between the rows. The recommended production package was practiced to raise two parents, F
1, F
2 and F
2:3 generations. A total 12 plants in each of the two parents and within each F
2:3 families in each replication survived to maturity.
Sampling of plants and data recording
Data were recorded on 10 randomly selected plants (avoiding border ones) fromtwo parents, their reciprocal F
1’s and from each of the 144 F
2:3 progenies in each of the two replications and all the individual F
2 plants (236 and 225) derived from HA 4 × HA 5 and HA 5 × HA 4 crosses, respectively for four traits, namely, number of primary branches and pods and weights of sun-dried pods and grains. The average of these traits across ten sample plants in each replication was computed and expressed as primary branches plant
-1, pods plant
-1, pod weight plant
-1 (g) and grain weight plant
-1 (g).
Estimation of quantitative genetic parameters
Data recorded on 10 randomly selected individual plants in two parents and their two reciprocal F
1’s and F
2 plants (236 and 225) and replication-wise mean data of 10 randomly selected plants from each of the 144 F
2:3 progenies were used for estimation of three quantitative genetic parameters, namely mid-parental value [m], additive gene effect [a] and additive genetic variance [σ
2A] for use in prediction of the frequency of transgressive RILs that could be derived from HA 4 × HA 5 and HA 5 × HA 4 crosses. Assuming additive-dominance (A-D) model, the parameters, [m] and [a] were estimated using the multiple regression model (
Kearsey and Pooni, 1996) implemented in SPSS software version, 16.0. Adequacy of A-D model was examined by joint scaling test (
Kearsey and Pooni, 1996) implemented in SPSS software version 16.0. The [σ
2A] was estimated by equating observed and expected mean squares (MS) attributable to ‘between F
2:3 families’ from analysis of variance (ANOVA) of F
2:3 families and solving for σ
2A using the formula; (
van Ooijen, 1989).
The analysis was implemented suing Microsoft Excel software.
Predictingthe frequency and minimum population size required for the recovery of transgressive RILs
Assuming that the data follow normal distribution, the probability (frequency) of recovering RILs that are likely to transgress the better parent (HA 5) was estimated as standard normal distribution integrals corresponding to quotient, (mean of HA 5-m)/σ
A for each trait considered in the present study; where, [m] is mid parental value and σ
A is square-root of σ
2A (
Jinks and Pooni, 1976). The minimum population size required to guarantee (say 95%) that RILs transgress HA 5 was predicted as the number (n) of RILs need to be raised such that probability of RILs that do not surpass HA 5 is less than 5% (
Kearsey and Pooni, 1996). This probability was translated in to the equation:
(1-P)n ≤0.05,
Where,
P= Probability of RILs that transgress HA 5.
(1-P) = Probability of RILs that do not transgress HA 5.
The equation was solved for ‘n’ by applying logarithm to both the sides and rearranging the terms as n ≥ log 0.05/log (1-P). If say 1% of RILs are predicted to surpass the HA 5, then ‘n’ was predicted as the ratio of log 0.05 to log 0.99, which is ≥298.