Evaluation of inheritance to leaf rust in wheat using area under disease progress curve

Six varieties, Kundan (K), Galvez‐87 (G), Trap (T), Chris (C), Mango (M) and PBW‐348 (P) along with fast ruster, Agra Local (AL), were screened for seedling reaction and adult pant response to leaf rust. Seedlings of all six varieties were susceptible while adult plants showed lower susceptability response than Agra Local. The F1s among the varieties, and also with Agra Local, showed the values lesser than the respective mid parental values for AUDPC suggesting a polygenic mode of inheritance. ANOVA for combining ability effects indicated variation due to the GCA and SCA effects, which indicated that both additive as well as non‐additive type of genetic variances, govern AUDPC. The higher values for the GCA variance over the SCA variance indicated the predominance of an additive component over the dominance component for AUDPC. Significant values for GCA effects indicated that Kundan, Galvez‐87 and Trap can be used as good general combiners for AUDPC. The crosses, K×AL, G×AL and T×AL showed significant sca effects for AUDPC, which indicated the predominance of non‐additive gene effects in these crosses. Additive×additive and dominance×dominance components of the 5‐ parameter model were highly significant and contributed maximum extent compared to the additive and dominance components in the cross K×G, while dominance and dominance×dominance components contributed maximum in the remaining crosses. Under such a situation, improvement in the character may be expected through standard selection procedure, which may first exploit the additive gene effects and simultaneously care should be taken to see that the dominance effects are not dissipated, but rather they should be concentrated.