Estimation and utilization of heterosis and heterobeltosis for yield and yield contributing traits in tossa jute hybrids (F1) derived from diverse germplasms

Development of high yielding jute variety through the artificial hybridization followed by selection on the basis of heterosis and heterobeltosis are the prerequisites for the breeders. The present study was performed to investigate the heterosis and heterobeltosis effects of 17 hybrids obtained from 15 parents. There are 11 accessions, 2 advanced breeding lines and 2 pre-released varieties of tossa jute having different morpho-phenological characters that were used as breeding parents. The parents were grown under field conditions during September’2020 and hybridization was done during December’2020. The hybrids along with the parents were grown for morphological observation during March-December’2021 in the experimental field at BJRI, Dhaka. Highly significant morpho-genetical variations were observed among the hybrids comparing with their respective parents. Among all the 17 hybrids, the hybrid (F 1 ) of O-049-1-3 (R) ×Acc.1331 showed positive heterosis over mid parent and better parent for yield contributing characters like fibre (59.57%) and stick weight (76.22%); followed by the hybrids (F 1s ) of O-049-1-3 (R) × Acc. 3718, O-049-1-3 (R) × O-043-7-9(G), O-043-7-9(G) × O-049-1-3 (R) and Acc. 3424 × Acc. 1334 for the studied characters, respectively. The parents including Acc. 1361, Acc.4311, BJRI Tossa Pat-5 and BJRI Tossa Pat-8 exhibited higher mean performance for the yield contributing traits. Among all the hybrids, five hybrids (29.41 %) showed positive result (heterobeltosis) than the respective better parents in respect of fibre yield. These hybrids may be considered for further evaluation in respect of achieving homozygosity followed by developing high yielding tossa jute varieties in Bangladesh.