Combining ability and patterns of inheritance for plant and fruit traits in Japanese quince (Chaenomeles japonica)

Abstract

Phenotypic variation and pattern ofinheritance was investigated for plant andfruit traits in Japanese quince (Chaenomeles japonica, Maloideae). Japanesequince is a minor fruit crop in Latvia andLithuania, and is presently being developedfor production of juice, aroma and fruitfibre in Sweden and Finland. General andspecific combining ability was estimatedfor five plant vegetative traits, eightfruit yield and morphology traits, and fivefruit biochemistry traits in a studypopulation consisting of 14 hybridfamilies. Thorniness seems to be controlledprimarily by a single locus. All othertraits studied appear to be governedprimarily by additive genes, as judged fromgeneral combining ability estimates.Significant specific combining ability(SCA) was detected for yield, plant heightand some fruit traits. However, therelative contribution of SCA to the overallgenetic variance was in general low. Anefficient breeding strategy for Japanesequince could therefore be based onrecurrent selection.