The Genetic Variances for the Phytic Acid and Inorganic Phosphorus Contents of Elite Inbred Lines in Tropical Maize

The study aimed to determine the genetic variances of phytic acid （myo-inositol 1,2,3,4,5,6 hexakis-dihydrogen phosphate） （PA） and inorganic phosphorus contents （InP） in grains of tropical maize （Zea mays L.）. The understanding of genetic variances in PA and InP in tropical maize would be useful for breeding management in tropical region. A total of 16 Ki inbred lines and 26 new inbred lines of tropical maize were planted in Completely Randomized Design （CRD） on the dry season 2008 at lnseechandrastitya Institute for Crops Research and Development, Thailand. The results showed that genotypic differences were highly significant （P 〈 0.01） for InP in both sources of germplasm, but genotype effect only was found significant in new inbred lines for PA content. The values for broad sense heritability （h2b） was generally lower on PA in maize grains compared with InP both in Ki and new inbred lines [h^2b of PA： 2.42 （Ki）, 14.18 （commercial hybrid extracted）; h^2b of InP： 32 （Ki） and 29.53 （commercial hybrid extracted）].

Exceptionally high genetic variance of the doubled haploid(DH)population of poplar

Doubled haploid(DH)plants have been widely used for breeding and biological research in crops.Pop ulus spp.have been used as model woody plant species for biological research.However,the induction of DH poplar plants is onerous,and limited biological or breeding work has been carried out on DH individuals or populations.In this study,we provide an effective protocol for poplar haploid induction based on an anther culture method.A total of 96 whole DH plant lines were obtained using an F1hybrid of Populus simonii×P.nigra as a donor tree.The phenotypes of the DH population showed exceptionally high variance when compared to those of half-sib progeny of the donor tree.Each DH line displayed distinct features compared to those of the other DH lines or the donor tree.Additionally,some excellent homozygous lines have the potential to be model plants in genetic and breeding studies.

Developmental Genetic Analysis of Brown Rice Weight Under Different Environmental Conditions in indica Rice

Analysis of genetic main effects and genotype x environment (GE) interaction effects for brown rice weight (BRW) at four different filling stages in indica lice (Oryza sativa L.) was conducted for two-year experimental data by using developmental genetic models and corresponding statistical approaches for quantitative traits of seeds in cereal crops. It was indicated that the genetic main effects and their GE interaction effects of triploid endosperm, cytoplasmic and diploid maternal plant genes were important for BRW at different filling stages of rice, especially for endosperm or maternal additive main effects and their additive interaction effects. Because of the higher additive effects and additive interaction effects for BRW at different filling stages, the better improving effects for this trait could be expected by selection in rice breeding. The results of conditional genetic variance components showed that the new expression of quantitative genes in endosperm and maternal plant for BRW was mostly found at all different filling stages of rice. The gene expression, however, was most active at the early filling stages especially for the first (1-7 d) and the second filling stages (8-14 d after flowering). The phenomena that some genes were spasmodically expressible among filling stages of rice were detected for some genetic effects especially for net cytoplasmic main effects or its interaction effects and net dominance main effects. Predicted genetic effects at different filling stages of rice showed that some parents such as V20 and Zuo 5 were better than others for improving the BRW.

Genetic analysis of fruit shape traits at different maturation stages in sponge gourd

The fruit shape is important quantitative trait closely related to the fruit quality. However, the genetic model of fruit shapes has not been proposed. Therefore, in the present study, analysis of genetic effects for fruit shape traits （fruit length and fruit perimeter） in sponge gourd was conducted by employing a developmental genetic model including fruit direct effects and maternal effects. Analysis approaches of unconditional and conditional variances were applied to evaluate the genetic behavior of fruit shape traits at economical and physiological maturation times. The results of variance analysis indicated that fruit length and fruit perimeter were simultaneously affected by fruit direct genetic effects and maternal effects. Fruit direct genetic effects were relatively more important for fruit shape traits at whole developmental period. The gene expression was most active at the economical maturation stage （1-12 d after flowering） for two shape traits, and the activation of gene was mostly due to direct dominance effects at physiological maturation stage （13-60 datter flowering）. The coefficients due to different genetic effects, as well as the phenotypic correlation coefficients, varied significantly between fruit shape traits themselves at various maturation stages. The results showed that it was relatively easy to improve fruit shape traits for industrial purpose by carefully selecting the parents at economical maturation stage instead of that at physiological maturation stage.

Studies on the Developmental Genetics of Tiller Number in Three-line Indica Hybrid Rice

Following NCI design, the developmental genetic behavior of tiller number (TN) in three-line indica hybrid rice was studied using additive-dominance developmental genetic models and the corresponding statistical methods. The results showed that dominance effects were predominant for TN. The expression of those additive effects were affected by environment and genotype interaction, but the expression of dominance effects were not affected. Heterosis was the strongest in the middle developmental periods of TN. Additive effects and dominance effects were selectively expressed throughout in the entire tillering developmental stage. Analysis of genetic correlation between TN at different stages and the productive panicles indicated that a close correlation appeared earlier in the populations with higher heterosis than in those with less heterosis. Utilization of heterosis at the middle tillering stage might enhance the final biomass but reduce the percentage of productive panicles.

Developmental Analysis of Genetic Behavior of Brown Rice Width in indica-japonica Hybrids

The developmental genetic behaviors of brown rice width （BRW） have been studied in indica-japonica hybrid rice （Oryza sativa L.）, in which seven indica male sterile lines and five japonica restorer lines were applied, by using the developmental genetic models and corresponding statistical approaches for quantitative traits of triploid in cereal crops. The BRW of indica-japonica hybrid rice was co-determined by gene expression of tdploid endosperm, cytoplasm, diploid maternal plant and their genotype × environmental interaction effects. Unconditional analysis showed that the endosperm additive and matemal additive effects were predominant for the development of BRW from early- to late-stage of the grain development, but the endosperm dominant effect together with matemal effect and cytoplasmic effect became the major factor determing the BRW at the ripening stage. Moreover, conditional analysis found that there were new onset and offset of gene expression at different developmental stages of BRW in indica-japonica hybrid rice. Maternal and cytoplasm general heritabilities and their interaction heritabilities were more important compared to other components of heritability for BRW at all the five developmental stages.

Estimated Genetic Variance Explained by Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms of Different Minor Allele Frequencies for Carcass Traits in Japanese Black Cattle

Japanese Black cattle are a beef breed and well known to excel in carcass quality, but the details of genetic architectures for carcass traits in beef breeds including this breed are still poorly understood. The objective of this study was to estimate the degree of additive genetic variance explained by single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) marker groups with different levels of minor allele frequency (MAF) for marbling score and carcass weight in Japanese Black cattle. Phenotypic data on 872 fattened steers with the genotype information about 40,000 autosomal SNPs were analyzed using two different statistical models: one considering only SNPs selected based on MAF (model 1) and the other also considering all remaining SNPs as the different term (model 2). All available SNPs were classified into 10 groups based on their MAFs. For both traits, the estimated proportions of additive genetic variance explained by SNPs selected based on their MAFs using model 1 were always higher than the estimated ones using model 2. For carcass weight, relatively high values of the proportion of the additive genetic variance were estimated when using SNPs with MAFs which were in the ranges of 0.20 to 0.25 and 0.25 to 0.30, which may be partly due to the three previously-reported quantitative trait loci candidate regions. The results could have provided some information on the genetic architecture for the carcass traits in Japanese Black cattle, although its validity may be limited, mainly due to the sample size and the use of simpler statistical models in this study.

Spatial analysis increases efficiency of progeny testing of Chinese fir

We used spatial, global trend and post-blocking analysis to examine the effectiveness of a progeny trial in a tree breeding program for Chinese fir （Cunninghamia lanceolata （Lamb.） Hook） on a hilly site with an environmental gradient from hill top to bottom. Diameter at breast height （DBH） and tree height data had significant spatial auto-correlations among rows and columns. Adding a firstorder separable autoregressive term more effectively modelled the spatial variation than did the incomplete block （IB） model used for the experimental design. The spatial model also accounted for effects of experimental design factors and greatly reduced residual variances. The spatial analysis rel- ative to the IB analysis improved estimation of genetic parameters with the residual variance reduced 13 and 19% for DBH and tree height, respectively; heritability increased 35 and 51% for DBH and tree height, respectively; and genetic gain improved 3-5%. Fitting global trend and postblocking did not improve the analyses under IB model. The use of a spatial model or combined with a design model is recommended for forest genetic trials, particularly with global trend and local spatial variation of hilly sites.

Selection of Maize Genotypes Resistant to Pink Stem Borer and Sugarcane Borer

Maize is an important economic crop grown in Nigeria. Its production is dramatically affect by the pink stem borer--Sesamia caIamistis （Hampson, Noctuidae） and sugarcane borer--Eldana saccharina （Walker, Pyralidae） that are endemic in Southeastern Nigeria. In areas of stress, existing genotypes may marginally do well due to their inherent capabilities. Therefore, it is possible to find useful genes in such areas of stress, since such genes have been responsible for the survival of host crops over the years. Evaluation study was conducted for a range of agronomic characteristics and resistance attributes for 209 local maize collections from Southeastern Nigeria along with three improved check varieties. Field trials were conducted at three locations in a total of four environments in 2001. Highly significant genotypic variances as were noted in all the traits, are indicative of the magnitude of variation that exists among the genotypes, thus providing the opportunity of selection for desirable traits. Furthermore, four traits, namely, leaf feeding, ear damage, stalk lodging and yield were used from across the environments to construct a rank summation index （RSI）, which was used to rank the entries for resistance to stem borers. This RSI led to the identification of 11 genotypes which represents the best 5% of the 212 genotypes in resistance ability. Genotype AMA TZBR-WC1 （from International Institute of Tropical Agriculture （IITA）, Ibadan） had the best overall resistance levels, followed by genotypes SE NG-77 and SE NG-67 （from Umuahia North）, SE NG-62 （from Ikwuano）, SE NG-148 （from Ukwa West）, SE NG-106 （from Bende）, SE NG-119 （from Isiala Ngwa）, SE NG-33 （from Ikwuano） and SE NG-65 （from Umuahia North）.