Abstract
Genetic variance components, narrow-sense heritabilities, and general combining ability (GCA) effects were estimated for plant growth habit traits from a partial diallel cross among 17 blueberry (Vactinium corymbosum L., V. angustifolium Ait., and V. corymbosum x V. angustifolium hybrids) parents. Plant height, plant diameter, and a subjective stature rating were recorded for parent and progeny plants in 1984 after 9 growing seasons at Becker, Minn. General and specific (SCA) combining ability variances were significant for all traits. GCA variance components were larger than SCA components for height and stature rating, and heritabilities (family-mean basis) were 0.68 and 0.64, respectively, indicating the relative importance of additive genetic variance for these traits. Desired stature or height in this population should be recoverable through recurrent phenotypic selection. SCA variance components were much larger than GCA components for plant diameter measures, and heritability was low. Vaccinium angustifolium parents had very negative GCA effects for plant height and stature ratings, while parents with largely V. corymbosum ancestry had positive effects. Coefficients of determination between parental phenotype and GCA effects indicated that progeny performance should be predicted by parental phenotype for stature or height but not for diameter.
heritability estimates. Family diversity. Cultivated sweetpotato (2n = 6x = 90) is widely recognized as a diverse species and the 25 full-sib families, of 20–25 progeny each, generated in this experiment demonstrated extensive diversity for storage root shape
Abstract
Procedures for forced field infestation of maize with European corn borer egg masses, placed to simulate possible natural ovipositional sites and to emphasize damage to the ear, were compared. A growth chamber procedure using excised ears and a free-choice (preference) infestation procedure were also used. Forced infestation in the field permitted infestation at a uniform relative maturity and uniform development of borers from time of infestation to evaluation. An ear-and-leaf infestation procedure appeared to be the most appropriate for simultaneous evaluation of kernel damage and stalk tunneling. Estimated heritabilities, using this procedure on 2 segregating populations, were 0.71 and 0.84 for kernel damage and 0.39 and 0.79 for stalk tunneling. Phenotypic correlations among 3 ear damage criteria were noted (r = 0.42 to 0.46). Evaluation based on kernel damage alone, excluding cob tunneling and number of surviving larvae, was considered sufficient. There was no evidence that kernel damage was influenced by level of stalk tunneling.
Heritability of resistance to early blight disease in potatoes (Solarium tuberosum L.) incited by Alternaria solani (En. & Martin) Ser. was estimated in tetraploid × diploid crosses. Susceptible tetraploid cultivars and breeding lines were the female parents. Diploids that produced a high proportion of first-division restitution (FDR) gametes and possessed different levels of early blight resistance were the male parents. Tubers from seedlings that resulted from the tetraploid × diploid crosses were planted in a field and artificially inoculated with spores of Alternaria solani. Resistance was measured as the slope (r) of the regression of the logit of the percent defoliation of each plant vs. time. Higher r values indicated lower resistance. Mean r values ranged from 0.123 to 0.157 for the tetraploid parents, and from 0.054 to 0.116 for the diploid parents. Mean r values for the tetraploid × diploid crosses were intermediate, ranging from 0.077 to 0.143. Narrow-sense heritability (h2) was 0.815. The partial correlation coefficient between r and mean maturity values was – 0.2086.
Thirteen peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] fruit characteristics were investigated for 3 years, 1993, 1994, and 1995, in College Station, Texas, to determine heritability, genetic and phenotypic correlations, and predicted response to selection. Seedlings of 108 families resulting from crosses among 42 peach cultivars and selections were used in the evaluations. A mixed linear model, with years treated as fixed and additive genotypes as random factors, was employed to analyze the data. Best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) was used to estimate fixed effects. Restricted maximum likelihood (REML) was used to estimate variance components, and a multiple trait model was used to estimate genetic and phenotypic covariances between traits. Genetic and phenotypic correlations ≥0.65 and <0.30 were considered strong or very strong and weak, respectively. Date of ripening, fruit development period (FDP) and date of full bloom had the highest heritability (h2) estimates, 0.94, 0.91, and 0.78, respectively. Fruit cheek diameter and titratable acidity (h2 = 0.31) were the traits with the lowest estimates. Fruit development period, fruit blush, and date of ripening had the highest predicted selection responses, whereas fruit suture, fruit cheek, L/W12 (ratio fruit length to average fruit diameters), and fruit tip had the lowest values. Most genetic correlations were ≥0.30 and were, in general, much higher than the corresponding phenotypic correlations. All four measures of fruit size were genetically and phenotypically very strongly correlated. Important genetic correlation estimates were also observed for date of ripening with FDP (ra = 0.93), date of ripening and FDP with fruit blush (ra = -0.77, ra = -0.72), SS (percent soluble solids) (ra = 0.63, ra = 0.62) and TA (ra = 0.55, ra = 0.64), and SS with TA (ra = -0.56). Direct selection practiced solely for early ripening and short FDP is expected to have a greater effect on correlated traits than direct selection for early bloom and large fruit mass.
Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) progeny were evaluated at two locations in California for resistance to alternaria late blight caused by Alternaria alternata (Fries) Keissler in 1995 and 1997. Large differences in alternaria late blight infection among seedlings were observed. Narrow sense heritabilities based on half-sib analysis of 20 open pollinated families were 0.48 and 0.11 at Kearney Agricultural Center in 1995 and 1997, respectively, and 0.56 and 0.54 at the Wolfskill Experimental Orchard near Davis in 1995 and 1997, respectively. Differences among families to alternaria late blight infection were highly significant and associated with the female parents. Fifty-eight highly resistant seedlings were identified for future cultivar selection efforts.
Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is a nutritionally complete food, but contains antinutritional compounds that reduce digestibility. One group of compounds includes the raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) (raffinose, stachyose, and verbascose), which are partly responsible for flatulence after beans are eaten. RFOs stabilize cell membranes during seed desiccation and when the seed rehydrates during germination. While low levels of RFOs are desirable nutritionally, high levels may enhance germination and emergence, particularly in cold, wet soils. Eight landraces selected for high and low sucrose, raffinose, and stachyose content, were crossed in a diallel mating design to investigate genetic control of the RFOs. Derivatized soluble sugars were measured using gas-liquid chromatography. Fructose, sucrose, raffinose, and stachyose were detected. In the F1, fructose varied from 0.1 to 2.5 mg·g-1 dry weight (DW), sucrose from 17.2 to 56.5 mg·g-1 DW, raffinose from 0.1 to 4.1 mg·g-1 DW, and stachyose ranged from 7.6 to 43.7 mg·g-1 DW. Griffing's analysis estimates of general combining ability were on average, 16.5 times larger than specific combining ability for all the RFOs, indicating that additive genetic variance was most important. Significant reciprocal differences were detected in the F1 and F2, but not in the F3. RFO accumulation was partially dominant as indicated by Hayman's analysis. Narrow sense heritability averaged over F2 and F3 generations for sucrose, raffinose, stachyose, total sugar, and total oligosaccharides were 0.22, 0.54, 0.44, 0.17, and 0.27, respectively. Moderate heritabilities indicate that manipulation of RFO accumulation in this set of bean lines would probably need to be done on a progeny row basis with replication.
A knowledge of the relative proportion of additive and nonadditive genetic variances for complex traits in a population forms a basis for studying trait inheritance and can be used as a tool in plant breeding. A North Carolina Design II mating scheme was used to determine the inheritance of cooking time, protein and tannin content, and water absorption among 16 genotypes of dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) representative of the Andean Center of Domestication. Heritability and the degree of dominance for the traits were also calculated to provide guidelines for adopting breeding strategies for cultivar development. Thirty-two progeny resulted from the matings and these were assigned to two sets of 16 progeny each. Variances due to general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) were significant for the traits. The GCA was larger in all cases. Narrow-sense heritability for protein, tannin, water absorption, and cooking time averaged 0.88, 0.91, 0.77, and 0.90, respectively. Degree of dominance estimates indicted that the traits were governed by genes with partial dominance except, in one case, tannin had a degree of dominance value of zero, indicating no dominance. The phenotypic correlation (-0.82) between water absorption and cooking time justifies using the water absorption trait as an indirect selection method for cooking time. With regard to parent selection in crosses, significant differences between GCA females and GCA males suggested cytoplasmic influences on trait expression. Hence, the way a parent is used in a cross (i.e., as female or male) will offset trait segregation. Using fast-cooking bean cultivars in conjunction with fuel-efficient cooking methods may be the best strategy to conserve fuelwood and help reduce the rate of deforestation in East and Central Africa.
Seedlings of 108 families from crosses among 42 peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] cultivars and selections were evaluated for six plant characteristics in 1993, 1994, and 1995. The data were analyzed by using a mixed linear model, with years treated as fixed and additive genotypes as random factors. Best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) was used to estimate fixed effects. Restricted maximum likelihood (REML) was used to estimate variance components, and a multiple trait model was used to estimate genetic and phenotypic covariances among traits. The narrow-sense heritability estimates were 0.41, 0.29, 0.48, 0.47, 0.43, and 0.23 for flower density, flowers per node, node density, fruit density, fruit set, and blind node propensity, respectively. Most genetic correlations among pairs of traits were ≥0.30 and were, in general, much higher than the corresponding phenotypic correlations. Flower density and flowers per node (ra = 0.95), fruit density and fruit set (ra = 0.84) and flower density and fruit density (ra = 0.71) were the combinations of traits that had the highest genetic correlation estimates. Direct selection practiced solely for flower density (either direction) is expected to have a greater effect on fruit density than direct selection for fruit density.
Heritabilities (H) of seed transmission and leaf and pod reactions to common bacterial blight (CBB) Xanthomonas campestris pv. phaseoli (Xcp) and to web blight (WB) Thanatephorus cucumeris (Tc) were studied. The reaction to CBB was quantitatively inherited. H values of .36, .46, and .34 for leaf reaction, .14, .12, and .27 for pod reaction, .53, .26, and .36 for seed transmission were estimated based on variation of F6 lines derived from bean crosses 'PC-50' × XAN-159, 'PC-50'× BAC-6, and 'Venezuela 44' × BAC-6 (greenhouse, NE). No significant correlations were detected between leaf and pod reactions or between pod reaction and seed transmission. Quantitative inheritance patterns were observed for leaf reactions to Xcp, Tc, and architecture (AR) in F6lines from the cross BAC-6 × HT 7719 (field, Dominican Republic). H values of .23 (CBB), .14 (WB), and .30 (AR) were obtained. No significant correlations were detected between CBB with WB or AR. A low correlation (+.22) was found between WB and AR.