Complementarity between parents for earliness and grain yield in soybean

Abstract The objective of this work was to determine the general and specific combining ability (GCA and SCA, respectively) of six soybean (Glycine max) parents, in order to identify the promising ones and their best combinations for the development of superior lines for earliness and grain yield, as well as the best evaluation season. Six parents and their 15 hybrids were evaluated in a randomized complete block design, during the 2014 winter and 2015/2016 summer, in a greenhouse. The data obtained for number of days to flowering, cycle, and grain yield were analyzed by Griffing’s method 2, model 1. Contrasting results were obtained for the two seasons, with a shorter cycle and a higher yield in the summer. The highest GCA for cycle is observed for the 'MSOY6101' and 'MSOY9144RR' parents, with negative and positive signs, respectively. 'TMG123RR' shows the highest GCA for grain yield. The highest SCA for days to flowering and cycle is associated with the 'SYN9078RR' × 'MSOY9144RR' and 'TMG123RR' × 'MSOY9144RR' crosses, respectively. However, the highest SCA for grain yield is observed for 'MSOY6101' × 'MSOY9144RR', with a positive value, and for 'TMG801' × 'MSOY9144RR', with a negative value, during the summer.