Genetic Parameters for Determining Useful Parents in Mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek) Breeding for Early Maturity, Small Seed Size, and High Seed Yield

Early maturity, small seed size, and high seed yield are important characters of mungbean in Indonesia. The objective of the study was to determine the useful parents in mungbean crosses for early maturity, small seed size, and high seed yield varieties by estimating the genetic parameters and their inheritance. The study was conducted at the ILETRI, Malang, East Java, Indonesia, during the dry season of 2014. 20 F1 and 5 parents were evaluated using a randomized block design, repeated three times. Results of the study showed that all observed traits showed the importance of both additive and dominance gene effects. The relative value of general combining ability (GCA) was greater than specific combining ability (SCA) for number of pod clusters per plant, number of branches per plant, plant height, days to maturity, and 100-seed weight which indicated the importance of additive gene effect. The dominance gene effect occurred on number of pods and seed yield per plant. Among five parents, G3 was the best combiner for all the observed characters except pod length; therefore, G3 could be exploited for late maturity, small seed size, high number of branches and pod cluster, and high seed yield. G5 has a high GCA for 100-seed weight. G1 and G2 have good GCA for early maturity. G3 and G5 genotypes are useful as parents in mungbean breeding for small and large seed size varieties, respectively. The best combination for seed yield was G2 × G3 and G3 × G1 crosses and could be proceeded with selection for early maturity, small seed size, and high seed yield varieties.