The experiment was undertaken to assess the magnitude of combining ability for yield, its components and fibre properties in upland cotton. The experimental material i.e. 52 genotypes (15 parents, 36 crosses and 1 check) produced from line x tester mating design were evaluated for fifteen characters in randomized block design with three replications across 3 environments at viz., Cotton Research Unit, Dr. PDKV, Akola, Regional Research Centre, Amravati and ICAR-Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur during kharif, 2017-18. Analysis of variance revealed that there was presence of substantial genetic variability for all the studied characters at all 3 environments. The pooled analysis, showed highly significant differences for all the characters indicating the validity of conduct of experiment in these environments. Further, there was significant G x E interaction for all the traits studied. The parents viz., DHY 286, AKH 9916 and AKH 10-5 were the best general combiners over 3 environments for seed cotton yield and its components. Among the hybrids, AKH 081 x AKH 09-5, AKH 8828 x AKH 2006-2, AKH 8828 x AKH 9916 were the best combinations based on higher and significant sca effects with highest standard heterosis and per se performance over the environments. These hybrids were also found promising for other yield contributing and fibre quality traits, hence, can be exploited for heterosis breeding. Whereas, the hybrid, AKH 8828 x DHY 286 may be exploited for development of varieties through transgressive segregation due to its non-significant sca and involving parents with high gca.

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