COMBINING ABILITY OF 6 AGRONOMIC TRAITS I N WHEAT (TRITICUM-AESTIVUM L)

The experiment was carried out in the field at the Estacao Experimenta l Agronomica of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, EEA-UFRGS, in Eldorado do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in 1987. The objective of the experiment was to analyze the combining ability involving six t raits in ten wheat genotypes. When the genetic aspects involved in the traits assessed were analyzed, it was observed that the additive effe cts had significant influence on the expression of the following trait s: plant stature, peduncle length, number of fertile tillers per plant , number of fertile spikelets per spike, grain weight per plant, and m aximum grain number per spikelet. Significant non-additive effects for the traits peduncle length, number of fertile spikelets per spike and maximum grain number per spikelet were also identified.