Abstract
The objectives were to estimate variance, co-variance and heritability components of potato tuber shape and fresh weight and the correlation among these traits in the early generations of selection. Seed and harvested tubers of nine progeny were evaluated for length, larger and smaller diameter and fresh weight. In average, the tubers were lengthy, because the relationship between lenght with larger diameter was 1.30 and with smaller diameter was 1.51. High heritability estimations were gotten for progeny selection, and low heritability for clone selection in the progeny. Heritability estimations got from correlation between generations were high and similar to progeny mean estimations. The tuber shape and fresh weight traits were highly correlated. The breeding gain can be maximized combining the selection among and within progeny to early discard undesirable clones.
Highlights
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the fourth crop in the world, after wheat, rice and maize, with a production of 315.1 million tons in 2006
The dormancy level greatly varies among cultivars, growing and storage conditions and tuber physiological age at harvest (Beukema and Van Der Zaag 1990, Bisognin et al 2008)
Breaking dormancy is necessary in the first clone generations of selection, because of the limited number of small tubers, which have higher levels of dormancy (Beukema and Van Der Zaag 1990, Bisognin et al 1998), to minimize clone discard, due to either no or late plantlet emergence
Summary
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the fourth crop in the world, after wheat, rice and maize, with a production of 315.1 million tons in 2006 (http://www.fao.org/). The average was 23.7 t ha-1 in 2007 (http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/). The main producing States are Minas Gerais, Paraná, São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul, responsible for 87% of the nationwide production (http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/). The dormancy level greatly varies among cultivars, growing and storage conditions and tuber physiological age at harvest (Beukema and Van Der Zaag 1990, Bisognin et al 2008). Breaking dormancy is necessary in the first clone generations of selection, because of the limited number of small tubers, which have higher levels of dormancy (Beukema and Van Der Zaag 1990, Bisognin et al 1998), to minimize clone discard, due to either no or late plantlet emergence
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