Gene effects for pod yield and horticultural traits of garden pea (Pisum sativum var. hortense L.) using Trigenic model of generation mean analysis

Abstract

The inheritance of pod yield and related horticultural traits of garden pea using 12 generations was followed in three inter-varietal crosses. The non-fixable gene effects are higher than the fixable as a consequence of higher magnitude of epistatic interactions. Duplicate type of epistasis for different traits in three crosses in one or the other environment suggested to proceed with mild selection intensity in the early generations followed by intense in the later. The failure of the trigenic model for shelling (%), pods/plant, pod yield/ plant, pod length and seeds/ pod in all or in one of the crosses and environments revealed the complexity in the inheritance of these characters suggesting either presence of minor or modifier genes, and linkage rather than higher order interactions is responsible. The non-additive gene effects along with presence of non-allelic interactions for majority of the traits in respective crosses directed to adopt population improvement methods to break undesirable linkages through recombination or to defer selection in later generations following bulk pedigree or SSD methods with one or two inter-matings like recurrent selection.