Worawit Sorajjapinun, Sompong Chankaew, and Peerasak Srinives

pp. 143 - 151

Abstract

Heterosis of seed yield in mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek) has created an interest among plant breeders to
develop hybrid mungbean cultivars. The objective of this study was to compare levels of heterosis among four F₁
 hybrids of
mungbeans with different genetic distance. The hybrids were developed by using Sukhothai (SKT) as the female parent and
pollinated by male parents of different genetic distance as revealed by SSR markers. They were H192 (close distance), C357
(moderate distance), TC1965 (high distance) and W166 (very high distance). The results revealed that the F₁
 from the parents
with larger genetic distance showed higher heterosis in yield per plant and number of pods per plant. Thus SSR markers
combined with yield components can be used to identify parental lines with high genetic distance for hybrid seed production
in mungbean. This approach potentially helps to reduce the amount of fieldwork required for evaluation of F₁
 hybrids.