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Long‐term Genetic Improvement and Genetic Diversity of Croatian Flue‐cured Tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum L.) Cultivars
Author(s) -
Šarčević H.,
Gunjaća J.,
Budimir A.,
Boić M.,
Bolarić S.,
Bukan M.,
Lewis R. S.,
Kozumplik V.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
crop science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.76
H-Index - 147
eISSN - 1435-0653
pISSN - 0011-183X
DOI - 10.2135/cropsci2012.03.0173
Subject(s) - cultivar , biology , genetic diversity , nicotiana tabacum , curing of tobacco , horticulture , genetic variation , agronomy , botany , population , genetics , gene , demography , sociology
Use of breeding methodologies to develop improved flue‐cured tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum L.) cultivars in Croatia has been performed since the early 1960s. Since that time, >20 cultivars have been released. Between 1973 and 2007, only nine of these cultivars have been accepted by tobacco growers and the tobacco industry, however. To quantify the genetic improvement of agronomic traits and associated changes in morphological and chemical characters during this period of time, these nine cultivars were grown and studied in experiments conducted at three Croatian locations for 3 yr. Trait stability and genetic diversity of the same cultivars were also investigated. Regression analysis of agronomic traits over year of cultivar release showed a significant annual increase in yield of 17.39 kg ha −1 yr −1 , price of $0.009 kg −1 yr −1 , and value of $56.50 ha −1 yr −1 . These increases can be attributed to genetic improvement of new cultivars. During the 1973–2007 time period, the average number of leaves increased significantly. Over the same period, nicotine content decreased slightly and reducing sugar content increased significantly. Newer cultivars were also found to have higher yield stability as compared to older cultivars. Genetic diversity among the studied cultivars as revealed by amplified fragment length polymorphism genetic markers was relatively low. Unweighted pair group method using arithmetic averages analysis clustered the cultivars in accordance with their pedigrees.