FACTORIAL MATING IN DURUM WHEAT (Triticum durum Desf.)

Eight new durum wheat genotypes (Triticum durum Desf.) were used in this study which were introduced from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) , in addition to the two locally grown varieties; Waha and Um-Rabie . The entries were crossed according to factorial mating design (six males and four females) to get 24 crosses. The characters studied were number of days to 50 % flowering , plant height, spike length, Flag leaf area / cm2 , number of grains / spike, number of spikes / m2 , biological yield , grain yield , harvest index , 100-grain weight , protein content and ash contents . Male mean squares were significantly different for all the characters except for the number of days to 50 %, spike length, where as the female mean squares were significantly different for all the characters . Interaction between males and females was significant for all the characters except for the number of days to 50 % flowering and 100-grain weight .The ratio of the general to specific combining ability components for the males was less than one for all the characters except for the 100-grain weight, while this ratio was less than one for all the characters for females except for 100-grain weight and ash content . Two genotypes (Omgenil-8) and (Sebatel) Were superior in general combining ability effects for most characters. The hybrids, (Omgenil-8*Terbol), (Azul-5*Syrian-4) and (Um-Rabie*Maamouri-3) were superior in specific combining ability effects for most characters .