Evaluation of a Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) Hybrid F1 Population Phenotypic Diversity and Construction of a Rapid Sucrose Yield Estimation Model for Breeding

Abstract

Sugarcane is the major sugar-producing crop worldwide, and hybrid F1 populations are the primary populations used in breeding. Challenged by the sugarcane genome’s complexity and the sucrose yield’s quantitative nature, phenotypic selection is still the most commonly used approach for high-sucrose yield sugarcane breeding. In this study, a hybrid F1 population containing 135 hybrids was constructed and evaluated for 11 traits (sucrose yield (SY) and its related traits) in a randomized complete-block design during two consecutive growing seasons. The results revealed that all the traits exhibited distinct variation, with the coefficient of variation (CV) ranging from 0.09 to 0.35, the Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H′) ranging between 2.64 and 2.98, and the broad-sense heritability ranging from 0.75 to 0.84. Correlation analysis revealed complex correlations between the traits, with 30 trait pairs being significantly correlated. Eight traits, including stalk number (SN), stalk diameter (SD), internode length (IL), stalk height (SH), stalk weight (SW), Brix (B), sucrose content (SC), and yield (Y), were significantly positively correlated with sucrose yield (SY). Cluster analysis based on the 11 traits divided the 135 F1 hybrids into three groups, with 55 hybrids in Group I, 69 hybrids in Group II, and 11 hybrids in Group III. The principal component analysis indicated that the values of the first four major components’ vectors were greater than 1 and the cumulative contribution rate reached 80.93%. Based on the main component values of all samples, 24 F1 genotypes had greater values than the high-yielding parent ‘ROC22’ and were selected for the next breeding stage. A rapid sucrose yield estimation equation was established using four easily measured sucrose yield-related traits through multivariable linear stepwise regression. The model was subsequently confirmed using 26 sugarcane cultivars and 24 F1 hybrids. This study concludes that the sugarcane F1 population holds great genetic diversity in sucrose yield-related traits. The sucrose yield estimation model, ySY=2.01xSN+8.32xSD+0.79xB+3.44xSH−47.64, can aid to breed sugarcane varieties with high sucrose yield.

Assessment of Variability in Sugarcane (Saccharum Spp.) Seedlings of Different Crosses for Quantitative Traits

“…For the majority of the traits, except plant height and the number of shoots per clump, the one-way analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences among the 10 seedlings of each cross that were evaluated (Table 1). The results are found to be similar with the findings of Dena et al (2018), Farnsworth and Arioli (2018), Farrag et al (2018) and Xu et al (2023). Since the differences between crosses account for a large portion of the variation within crosses, these seedlings have the potential to produce high cane and sugar yields over the subsequent stage of selection.…”

“…This signified that the most of the seedlings from these crosses performed superior to the population mean. The results obtained are on par with the research done by Bharathi et al (2017), Somu and Nagaraja (2018), Xu et al (2023).…”

Effect of Drought and Pluvial Climates on the Production and Stability of Different Types of Peanut Cultivars in Guangdong, China

“…The impact of the climate or the environment on crops ultimately manifests in their phenotype, and different climates or environments may affect different traits [42,[44][45][46][47]. In this study, the CV of the twenty traits varied in CK, drought and pluvial conditions.…”

“…In this study, the CV of the twenty traits varied in CK, drought and pluvial conditions. Usually, when the CV is greater than 10%, the trait shows significant variation within the population [45,48]. Using the best linear unbiased prediction (control), nine of the twenty traits showed significant variation with a coefficient of variation greater than 10%.…”

Comprehensive Evaluation and Selection of 192 Maize Accessions from Different Sources

“…The diversity index can more accurately reflect the genetic diversity of resources, with a higher index indicating greater diversity among traits [29]. An analysis of the agronomic trait data of 192 maize germplasms over two years revealed that, aside from plant height and stem-leaf angle, which exhibited significant mean value differences between the years, the mean values of other traits did not differ significantly(Table 1).…”