Heritability of physiological and yield relayed traits in sugar beet under favorable and unfavorable conditions

Salinity is amongst sugar beet production constraints in Asia. Understanding the genetic basis of hybrid performance under stress is crucial to designing appropriate breeding strategies. In this study, four male sterile and ten pollinators were crossed as 29×4 according to North Carolina Design II to estimate genetic base, combining ability and heritability for physiological characteristics and yield related traits in sugar beet. 116 combinations and 14 parents were evaluated under saline and normal conditions conducted during 2011 and 2012. Narrow-sense heritability (Hn) for physiological traits was generally higher for stress environment compared to optimal condition and for yield related traits it was the opposite. More work is needed to address the heritability of traits because the effects of unfavorable conditions on heritability estimates might be diverse, as suggested by the different hypotheses.

Salinity is amongst sugar beet production constraints in Asia. Understanding the genetic basis of hybrid performance under stress is crucial to designing appropriate breeding strategies. In this study, four male sterile and ten pollinators were crossed as 29×4 according to North Carolina Design II to estimate genetic base, combining ability and heritability for physiological characteristics and yield related traits in sugar beet. 116 combinations and 14 parents were evaluated under saline and normal conditions conducted during 2011 and 2012. Narrow-sense heritability (Hn) for physiological traits was generally higher for stress environment compared to optimal condition and for yield related traits it was the opposite. More work is needed to address the heritability of traits because the effects of unfavorable conditions on heritability estimates might be diverse, as suggested by the different hypotheses.