AbstrAct:The increase of yield potential in new rice (Oryza sativa L.) varieties has been a major challenge for genetic improvement.The generation of mutants, followed by their characterization, constitutes a great possibility to isolate and select genes and genotypes that present agronomic traits of interest. This study significance. The results show that there is genetic variability among the mutant families, suggesting that the mutagen EMS at 1.5% is effective for generating mutants for all assessed traits. Among the characters, plant height was the most affected by the mutagen, which provided an increase in the character. For the main panicle length character, seven families showed means above the control; for main panicle weight and grain weight, four and six mutant families were observed, respectively, with a superior performance in comparison to the control.

ResumoA seleção indireta pode ser considerada uma estratégia interessante para o melhoramento de plantas, especialmente quando um caráter de fácil mensuração ou de maior herdabilidade estiver altamente correlacionado com um caráter de interesse, que apresente menor herdabilidade em populações segregantes. Os objetivos deste trabalho consistiram em obter estimativas de coeficientes de correlação fenotípica, genotípica e ambientais e avaliar os desdobramentos das correlações genotípicas em efeitos diretos e indiretos de variáveis agronômicas sobre o rendimento de grãos por meio da análise de dois ambientes de cultivo em quinze populações segregantes de trigo. Os caracteres agronômicos rendimento de grãos por planta (RG), número de grãos por espiga (NGE), peso dos grãos por espiga (PGE), massa de mil grãos (MMG), número de afilhos férteis (NAF), dias da emergência ao florescimento (DEF), dias do florescimento à maturação (DFM), ciclo total de desenvolvimento (CICLO), e acamamento (ACAM), foram avaliados em quinze populações segregantes F 4 de trigo sob dois sistemas de cultivo (com e sem encharcamento). Em todas as populações avaliadas, por meio das correlações simples, a seleção de plantas mais produtivas pode ser realizada pela seleção indireta sobre NGE, PGE e NAF. Mediante a análise de trilha foi possível identificar o efeito indireto do caráter NGE sobre RG. Assim como o efeito do PGE, do NAF, do DEF e de CICLO como causadores da formação da correlação entre outros caracteres (NGE x RG, MMG x RG, de DFM x RG, de CICLO x RG e de ACAM x RG), enfatizando que o NGE, o PGE, o NAF, o DEF e que o CICLO são os principais caracteres a serem considerados para aumentar a produtividade de grãos em trigo. Palavras-chave: Triticum aestivum L., seleção indireta, melhoramento de plantas, correlação entre caracteres AbstractIndirect selection can be considered an interesting strategy for plant breeding, especially when an easily measurable/high heritability trait is highly correlated with a target trait which has a lower heritability in segregating populations. The objective of this study was to obtain estimates of phenotypic, genotypic

Resumo -O objetivo deste trabalho foi determinar o desempenho per se e os parâmetros genéticos de caracteres de interesse, em linhagens de trigo que expressam ou não o caráter "stay-green". O experimento foi conduzido em 2003, 2004 e 2005, em delineamento experimental de blocos ao acaso, com três repetições. Foram avaliadas 32 linhagens irmãs de trigo, 15 com e 17 sem o caráter "stay-green". As linhagens portadoras desse caráter apresentaram maior produtividade de grãos, maior número de grãos por espiga e menor massa de mil grãos. Além disso, as herdabilidades da produtividade e da massa de grãos foram maiores nessas linhagens, o que revelou menor influência de variações ambientais sobre a expressão desses caracteres. O caráter "stay-green" contribui para o aumento da produtividade e da estabilidade produtiva do trigo.Termos para indexação: Triticum aestivum, estabilidade, herdabilidade, senescência retardada. Per se performance and genetic parameters of wheat lines expressing the "stay-green" characterAbstract -The objective of this work was to determine the per se performance and the genetic parameters of traits of interest in wheat inbred lines expressing or not the "stay-green" character. The experiment was carried out in 2003, 2004, and 2005 in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. Thirty-two sister-lines of wheat, 15 with and 17 without the stay-green character, were evaluated. The lines carrying this character showed higher grain yield, higher average number of kernels per ear, and lower weight of a thousand grains. Moreover, grain yield and grain mass heritabilities were higher in these lines, which reveled lower influence of environmental variation on the expression of these characters. The "stay-green" character contributes to increase productivity and productive stability of wheat.

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Chlorophyll fluorescence (ChlF) is a powerful non-invasive technique for probing photosynthesis. Although proposed as a method for drought tolerance screening, ChlF has not yet been fully adopted in physiological breeding, mainly due to limitations in high-throughput field phenotyping capabilities. The light-induced fluorescence transient (LIFT) sensor has recently been shown to reliably provide active ChlF data for rapid and remote characterisation of plant photosynthetic performance. We used the LIFT sensor to quantify photosynthesis traits across time in a large panel of durum wheat genotypes subjected to a progressive drought in replicated field trials over two growing seasons. The photosynthetic performance was measured at the

Osmotic adjustment (OA) is a major component of drought resistance in crops. The genetic basis of OA in wheat and other crops remains largely unknown. In this study, 248 field-grown durum wheat elite accessions grown under well-watered conditions, underwent a progressively severe drought treatment started at heading. Leaf samples were collected at heading and 17 days later. The following traits were considered: flowering time (FT), leaf relative water content (RWC), osmotic potential (ψs), OA, chlorophyll content (SPAD), and leaf rolling (LR). The high variability (3.89-fold) in OA among drought-stressed accessions resulted in high repeatability of the trait (h2 = 72.3%). Notably, a high positive correlation (r = 0.78) between OA and RWC was found under severe drought conditions. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) revealed 15 significant QTLs (Quantitative Trait Loci) for OA (global R2 = 63.6%), as well as eight major QTL hotspots/clusters on chromosome arms 1BL, 2BL, 4AL, 5AL, 6AL, 6BL, and 7BS, where a higher OA capacity was positively associated with RWC and/or SPAD, and negatively with LR, indicating a beneficial effect of OA on the water status of the plant. The comparative analysis with the results of 15 previous field trials conducted under varying water regimes showed concurrent effects of five OA QTL cluster hotspots on normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), thousand-kernel weight (TKW), and/or grain yield (GY). Gene content analysis of the cluster regions revealed the presence of several candidate genes, including bidirectional sugar transporter SWEET, rhomboid-like protein, and S-adenosyl-L-methionine-dependent methyltransferases superfamily protein, as well as DREB1. Our results support OA as a valuable proxy for marker-assisted selection (MAS) aimed at enhancing drought resistance in wheat.

The aim of this study was to compare the agronomic performance of RR soybean genotypes with conventional soybean genotypes derived from two-way crosses and evaluate through path analysis the influence of important traits for culture on the grain yield (GY) in the Northwestern of São Paulo, Brazil. It was used the randomized block design with three replications. Among the analyzed RR genotypes, three genotypes has high GY, with average values over 4575.5 kg ha-1 , while among the conventional, ten genotypes, and the check Conquista showed superiority for GY, with average values over 3511.4 Kg ha-1. In general, the most productive RR soybean genotypes showed higher values when compared with conventional genotypes with higher yield. However, conventional soybean showed a higher number of superior genotypes with similar behavior when compared to the RR soybean. For the group of RR soybean genotypes, all agronomic traits, except one hundred seed weight (HSW), correlated positively with GY. For the group of conventional soybean genotypes, there was no significant correlation between GY and all agronomic traits analyzed. The genotypic correlation and path analysis indicate the plant height at flowering (PHF) and plant height at maturity (PHM) as the most favorable and direct effect on GY.

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