Variation analyses of controlled pollinated families and parental combining ability of Pinus koraiensis

To evaluate and select elite Pinus koraiensis parent combinations and offspring families,34 full-sib families were evaluated.Variance analysis of tree height,diameter at breast height and volume showed no significant differences among each block,the interaction of block,male and female.The family heritability of all traits were high(>0.9).Phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variance of height,diameter at breast height,and volume showed that the phenotypic coefficient of variation of volume in the same combination was higher than height and diameter at breast height,indicating that volume was the main factor determining excellent single plant selection.The female and male trees with the best general combining ability indicated that the optimal parental hybridization was not necessarily the optimal combination.In addition,the least parents of hybrid offspring performance were always relatively poor and should not be selected as hybrid parents.Additionally,we found there was no significant difference among the effects of female and male parents by random modelling,but there were significant differences by fixed modelling.The most significant effect of female-and male interaction,and the selection of better female or male parents in the test parent group should be efficient as well as the results of significant variation among them by fixed modelling.For the evaluated breeding population of P.koraiensis,the backward selection of excellent parent combinations or forward selection of excellent individuals as progeny should be the major breeding strategies.