Genetic parameters considering traits of importance for cassava biofortification
Vanderlei da Silva Santos, Wânia Maria Gonçalves Fukuda, Luciana Alves de Oliveira, Marcio Eduardo Canto Pereira, Marilia Regini Nuti, José Luiz Viana de Carvalho and Helcio Duarte Pereira
Abstract: Twenty six sweet cassava clones were evaluated in two agricultural years, in randomized block design, with 3 replications and plots with 25 plants. The harvests were at 12 months after planting, in both years. The traits evaluated were root yield (RY), dry matter content (DMC), total carotenoids content (TC), β-carotene content (BC), trans-β-carotene content (TrBC) and total cyanide content (TCy). Genotype was significant (P<0.05) in all traits. Broad-sense heritability estimates at the plot level (h2mg) ranged from 77% (RY) to 93% (TC and TrBC), while the accuracy ranged from 0.88 (RY) to 0.96 (BC and TrBC). The genetic correlations among TC, BC and TrBC were high (0.96 to 0.99) and significant, and the genetic correlations involving these traits and TCy were negative. These results demonstrate the existence of great genetic variability in characteristics important to cassava biofortification and, consequently, great perspectives in the breeding for this purpose. Get the article here. (PDF)