Retesting Early Generation Stability of a Japonica Rice Variety 84-15 by Using Allelic Differences of Two Qualitative Traits

Early generation stability of a japonica rice variety, 84-15, was retested by using the allelic differences of two qualitative traits, i.e., glume tip color and waxy endosperm. Results showed that both glurne tip color and waxy endosperm segregated in progenies of single F1 plants derived from two crosses of 84-15/Zi 18 （purple color） and 84-15/Dahuaxiangnuo （waxy）. The results denied the conclusion obtained in previous studies that 84-15 had a characteristic of early generation stability. Moreover, it was found that using the coefficient of variation as an indicator of early generation stability was unreasonable by analyzing plant height as an example. Importance of avoiding systematic error in research works was also discussed.

Strategies on Sample Size Determination and Qualitative and Quantitative Traits Integration to Construct Core Collection of Rice (Oryza sativa)

The development of a core collection could enhance the utilization of germplasm collections in crop improvement programs and simplify their management. Selection of an appropriate sampling strategy is an important prerequisite to construct a core collection with appropriate size in order to adequately represent the genetic spectrum and maximally capture the genetic diversity in available crop collections. The present study was initiated to construct nested core collections to determine the appropriate sample size to represent the genetic diversity of rice landrace collection based on 15 quantitative traits and 34 qualitative traits of 2 262 rice accessions. The results showed that 50-225 nested core collections, whose sampling rate was 2.2%-9.9%, were sufficient to maintain the maximum genetic diversity of the initial collections. Of these, 150 accessions （6.6%） could capture the maximal genetic diversity of the initial collection. Three data types, i.e. qualitative traits （QT1）, quantitative traits （QT2） and integrated qualitative and quantitative traits （QTT）, were compared for their efficiency in constructing core collections based on the weighted pair-group average method combined with stepwise clustering and preferred sampling on adjusted Euclidean distances. Every combining scheme constructed eight rice core collections （225, 200, 175, 150, 125, 100, 75 and 50）. The results showed that the QTT data was the best in constructing a core collection as indicated by the genetic diversity of core collections. A core collection constructed only on the information of QT1 could not represent the initial collection effectively. QTT should be used together to construct a productive core collection.

Traits Analysis and Evaluation on Several Alfalfa Varieties

The agronomic and qualitative traits of 17 alfalfa varieties were analyzed in field and lab from 2006 to 2008, and these traits were evaluated by principal component analysis and cluster analysis. A total of 10 main traits were classified as five factors： growth factor, quality factor, stem and leaf factors, plant factor and yield factor. These five factors and their correlation were selected for breeding. These 17 varieties can be divided into five clusters. The domestic varieties have better agronomic traits, while the introduced ones have better qualitative traits.

Comparison and Analysis on DUS Screening Traits of Two Lavender Species

In this paper, based on the DUS testing of new Lavandula spp., the differences and correlations of main phenotypic traits between Lavandula angustifolia and L. heterophylla were observed and analyzed. The results showed that the plant morphological traits of L. angustifolia were better than that of L. heterophylla, moreover, L. angustifolia exhibited relatively high adaptive capacity to the environmental conditions in introduction areas of north China. For the inflorescence, the ornamental traits of L. heterophylla were totally superior to that of L. angustifolia, especially in flower color diversity. It had obvious differences in both quantitative traits and qualitative traits between the two species, and these traits remained relatively stable in the growth progress. The correlation coefficients among the traits of two species were high, and the trait matching numbers at the 1% significance level of L. angustifolia were slightly more than that of L. heterophylla.