ARS | Publication request: Correlation among commercial traits and the possible maternal effects for these traits in the reciprocal populations of Atlantic and Superior

Submitted to: Potato Association of America Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: April 16, 2012
Publication Date: August 12, 2012
Citation: Zorilla, C., Navarro, F., Vega, S., Bamberg, J.B., Palta, J. 2012. Correlation among commercial traits and the possible maternal effects for these traits in the reciprocal populations of Atlantic and Superior [abstract]. Potato Association of America Proceedings. Paper No. 090.

Technical Abstract: Reciprocal populations of Atlantic and Superior were created with the objective of combining the desired traits of the two parents and selecting a new variety with similar characteristics as Atlantic but with improved internal quality. Both parents have contrasting characteristics for yield, specific gravity, chipping quality, internal quality and tuber calcium. Correlations are of interest to identify the pleiotropic action of genes and the changes brought by selection. The evaluation of correlation will be performed by testing simple, phenotypic and genotypic correlations in a pairwise manner between all traits evaluated. In addition, maternal effects will be studied by comparing the significance of the difference between the mean performance of both reciprocal populations. The evaluation of correlations and maternal effects on the evaluated traits are very useful pieces of information that will guide our future breeding efforts. Our results indicate that both populations are segregating for all the quantitative traits studied; thus, they are good material to perform quantitative genetics studies. In addition, our preliminary results indicate that there are no maternal effects comparing both reciprocal populations suggesting that the phenotypic variation observed is mainly due to nuclear genes. In addition, we have found that some traits are significantly correlated, positively or negatively, to other traits suggesting that we should be careful at selecting for or against these traits.