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Genetic variability was investigated in a diverse, random-mating population of sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]. A Design I mating system was used where 50 random pollen parents each were crossed to a different set of three random seed parents. The 150 resulting progenies were evaluated in a randomized complete-block design over 2 years at the Purdue Agronomy Farm.
The characters evaluated were flowering, height, lodging, panicle weight, seed weight, panicle length, and grain yield.
Analysis of variance was performed for each trait, and genetic variances were partitioned into additive and dominance components. Additive genetic variance was greater than dominance variance for all traits except yield. The ratio of dominance variance to additive variance was 1.24 for yield and from 0.18 to 0.66 for height, lodging, panicle weight, and seed weight.
Yield showed highly significant positive phenotypic and genetic correlations with flowering and panicle weight. Other significant positive correlations included height with flowering, height with lodging, panicle weight with flowering, and panicle weight with lodging.
Expected genetic gains and heritabilities were calculated for various selection procedures. The effects of major height and maturity genes on variation for yield were discussed.
Key Words: Heritability Design I Genetic correlation Expected genetic gain Grain yield Lodging Height Maturity Recurrent selection Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench
2 Former graduate student (now Dekalb Research Stn., Dayton, IA 50530), associate professor, professor of genetics, and professor of statistics, Dep. of Agronomy, Purdue Univ.
Received for publication November 20, 1980.
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