DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF FCV TOBACCO CYTOPLASMIC MALE STERILE LINES AND THEIR MAINTAINERS FOR YIELD AND YIELD RELATED TRAITS UNDER KLS

Abstract

Hybrids are getting popular in FCV tobacco worldwide as they can be developed very quickly in response to an emergency situation such as outbreak of a disease or to combine multiple disease resistance. For the success of hybrids, it is essential to have workable CMS system that does not compromise the yield and quality. Hence, CMS lines suitable to Karnataka light soils were developed with desirable genetic background using different CMS lines. These CMS lines were evaluated for the influence of male sterile cytoplasm on yield and yield related traits in comparison with their respective maintainers. Study indicated significant differences among the CMS lines tested indicating existence of genetic variation among the lines tested. There were no significant differences between mean performance of the male sterile lines and their respective male fertile line (Maintainer) for most of the yield and yield related traits except for number of leaves. Also, within the same nuclear background, no significant differences were noticed among mean of the different CMS sources for all the traits under study. The results indicate that there was no negative effect of CMS sources on the yield and yield related traits studied.