Combining Ability and Heritability on Quality Traits of Indica Hybrid Rice

Five sterile and 5restoring lines of Indicarice were selected to study their combining abilities and heritabilities on 25 quality traits using an incomplete diallele cross design.The results showed that (a) the combining abilities of all selected traits differed significantly, and the ratio of genotypic variance to the entire genotypic variance of the general combining ability was significantly higher than that of the specific combining ability; (b) the grain length, percentage of chalky grain, chalkiness degree, alkali spreading value and gel consistency were affected mainly by the sterile line, while the brown rice percentage, milled rice rate, head rice yield and amylase by the restorer line; (c) the narrow heritability of the traits were in the order of:percentage of chalky grain, chalkiness degree, grain length, milled rice rate, amylase, alkali spreading value, head rice yield, brown rice percentage and gel consistency;and, (d) EF14 A and Fuhui 77 could potentially be used as parents for breeding hybrid rice.