Abstract
Ten rice genotypes were crossed in a line x tester mating design using four testers and six lines to produce 24 hybrids. Analysis of variance showed highly significant differences among genotypes for all the studied traits indicating a wide range of genetic diversity, different origin of these parents and prevalence of additive variance. However, mean sum of squares due to line x tester was significant for the studied traits except plant height. Sakha106, Eg-N-9 and Sakha101 showed negative highly significant GCA effects for duration revealing that these varieties could be good combiners for developing early duration genotypes. While for plant height, Sakha101, Sakha 106, Eg-N-1, Eg-N-2 and Eg-N-9 exhibited highly significant negative GCA effects for short plant height.
The best hybrid combinations were IRBL3-CP4 x Eg-N-9, IRBL5-M x Sakha101, Sakha106 x Al-Ahsa Type 1 and Sakha106 x Al-Ahsa Type 2. The best hybrids produced from different crosses were IRBL3-CP4 x Eg-N-9, IRBL5-M x Sakha101, Sakha106 x Al-Ahsa Type 1 and Sakha106 x Al-Ahsa Type 2. These crosses could be involved in the rice breeding program. The cluster analysis classified the ten parental genotypes into four clusters. The similarity was higher between the genotypes within cluster showing same origin.