Estimation of additive, dominance and digenic epistatic interaction effects for certain yield characters in Vigna sesquipedalis Fruw

Inheritance of yield and yield contributing characters were investigated us ing generation mean analysis, utilising the means of six basic populations viz., P-1, P-2, F-1, F-2, BC1P1 and BC1P2 in four crosses of Vigna sesquipe dalis. The analysis reiterated that the importance of dominance (h) gene ef fects for pod yield/plant and pods/plant as compared to additive (d) gene e ffects. However, significant and positive additive effects were noticed for pod yield/plant, pods/plant, pod weight and seed weight in different cross es. The three types of gene interactions (additive, dominance and epistasis ) were significantly involved for pods/plant in cross KU 7 x KU 8. Among th e digenic epistatic interactions, both additive x additive (i) and dominanc e x dominance (l) contributed more for pod yield/plant and pods/plant, howe ver, it varied among the crosses. Populations having earliness can be devel oped as indicated by reducing dominance effects. Pedigree selection and het erosis breeding is suggested to exploit the fixable and nonfixable componen ts of variation respectively in Vigna sesquipedalis.