Geneticl nlysis of ginning outturn and fiber properties in crosses in hirsutum cotton

Half diallel crosses (excluded reciprocals) carried out among nine upland cotton varieties (Halab1, SP8886, Dunn1517, Cocker5114, Deltapine5409, Lachata, Dunn1047, Cocker310 and Deer22). Genotypes were planted using RCBDesign with 3 replications and data collected for ginning outturn, lint index, fiber finness, 50% & 2.5% span length, fiber length uniformity, fiber strength and elongation, and statistical analysis conducted to study general and specific abilities, gene action and some genetical parameters. The results showed significant differences among genotypes for all characters unless fiber finness and 2.5% span length.The varieties Halab90 and SP8886 and hybrid (Lachata x Dunn1047) shown as good general combnors and specific combinor respectively for larger number of characters. The dominance gene action appeared more important than additive one in controlling the inheritance of all studied characters, and the average degree of dominance exceeded one for all characters indicated the presence of over dominance. Broad sense heritability estimates ranged from 38.9% for fiber finnessto 97.3% for fiber elongation, and narrow sense heritability shown moderate for fiber elongation (28.7%)and low for remainder characters, while expected genetic advanceas percent of the mean appeared low for all characters (from 0.021 for 50% span length to 7.21% for fiber elongation).