Premium
Components of Visual Selection in Early Clonal Generations of a Potato Breeding Programme
Author(s) -
Neele A. E. F.,
Nab H. J.,
Louwes K. M.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
plant breeding
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.583
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1439-0523
pISSN - 0179-9541
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0523.1991.tb00486.x
Subject(s) - biology , stolon , heritability , sowing , selection (genetic algorithm) , principal component analysis , yield (engineering) , horticulture , plant breeding , botany , agronomy , genetics , mathematics , statistics , artificial intelligence , computer science , materials science , metallurgy
In the first two clonal generations of a potato breeding programme, clones are visually selected for ‘plant appearance’. Selection for plant appearance based on unreplicated small plots is unreliable, due to significant genotype × environment interaction and high error variance. In order to improve the selection efficiency, component traits of plant appearance were identified and the effect of selection for these components was studied. Tuber yield was found to be the principal component of plant appearance while stolon length and tuber appearance contributed significantly, but to a lesser extent. Tuber yield had a higher heritability than plant appearance. Characters determining the appearance of stolons and tubers were found to have equal or lower heritabilities than plant appearance at 80 days after planting and somewhat higher heritabilities than plant appearance at 145 days after planting. Hence, since the expected and observed selection responses of the component characters have been found to be equivalent to that of plant appearance, selection for plant appearance cannot be improved upon by separately selecting for characters like tuber yield and tuber appearance.