The use of univariate cross prediction methods in the breeding of a clonally reproduced crop (Solanum tuberosum)

Abstract

The progenies from eight potato crosses were examined. A number of genotypes from each cross were visually assessed, by four breeders, after they had been grown from true-seed in a glasshouse and from seed-tubers in the field, at two locations, in three consecutive years.It was found that the mean and square root of the variance (a-) obtained from the data collected in any of the environments provided a good prediction of the number of clones in each cross that would exceed (or equal) a given target value. a-added increasingly to the accuracy of the prediction as the target value increased, but was not a major component in such predictions. When the predictions were used to provide a ranking of the crosses, the rank correlations showed good agreement between the different environments and between observed and expected ranks.

Quantitative and Ecological Aspects of Plant Breeding

“…Before applying these techniques to the three rape crosses, the principles underlying them will be illustrated with data from a potato trial conducted by Caligari and Brown (1986), which does not require the estimation of genetic parameters. Tubers harvested from eight crosses grown in the trial were visually assessed on a 1-9 scale of increasing commercial acceptability.…”

“…The prediction methods discussed in the previous section clearly lend themselves to inbreeding species, where they were designed to avoid the problems associated with early generation selection, particularly that of selecting among highly heterozygous material for genotypes which will produce superior homozygous lines (Caligari and Brown, 1986). Other methods have been developed, notably in maize where single, three-way and double-cross hybrids are used extensively.…”