Estimation of genetic parameters of some important agronomic traits in durum (Triticum turgidum Var. durum) wheat

The study was conducted to estimate of heterosis، combining ability، heritability، maternal effects and gene effects of grain yield and yield components in durum wheat in field condition. A complete diallel cross of seven durum wheat genotypes were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with two replications. The experiment performed at normal condition for wheat. Distance between rows and plants in each row were 25 and 4 cm and length of row was 2 meter. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among genotypes for all traits and significant heterosis was observed for all traits except spike length and grain yield per plant. General combining ability variance was highly significant for all the characters and specific combining ability variance was highly significant for all the characters except spike length. The mean square ratio of GCA to SCA implied the importance of additive genes effects in expression of grain weight per spike and spike length. Reciprocal mean squares were significant for all traits except spike length. Dipper-6 showed the highest GCA for important traits such as grain yield per plant، grain weight per spike، flag leaf area and grain number per spike. Broad-sense heritability estimates ranged from 0. 93 (for grain number per spike and grain weight per spike) to 0. 29 (for flag leaf area). Narrow-sense heritability estimates ranged from 0. 53 (for grain number per spike) to 0. 10 (for flag leaf area).