Genetic parameters and response to selection in the PANDOLY.PABG wheat population

Abstract

Genetic breeding in autogamous species has been carried out through recurrent selection methods that imply reduced variability and long periods between selection cycles. To determine genetic variability, heritability, and response to selection, we estimated the genetic parameters of 14 recurrent selection cycles in the male-sterile wheat population PANDOLY.PABG, which carries the dominant male-sterile mutant gene ‘Oly’. During the 2016-2017 winter cycle in Chapingo and Santa Lucía, Texcoco, Mexico, 100 plants per cycle were labeled and the following variables were recorded: days to flowering, days to physiological maturity, grain filling rate, plant height, biological yield per plant, grain yield per plant, harvest index, weight of 100 seeds, number of spikes per plant, and number of spikelets per spike. The selection cycles were evaluated in three environments in a completely randomized design. The response to selection was negative for days to flowering, days to physiological maturity, biological yield per plant, number of spikes per plant, and number of spikelets per spike; the variability decreased in days to flowering, days to physiological maturity, plant height, biological yield per plant, number of spikes per plant, W100S; and the variables of grain yield per plant, harvest index, and weight of 100 seeds presented high values of h² and σ²A; the latter are considered important variables to achieve greater gains in subsequent selection cycles. The above changes are the result of 14 recurrent selection cycles and it was confirmed that, with the PANDOLY population, there are advantages when compared to the traditional method to achieve genetic advances in a recurrent selection cycle per crop cycle.