Heritability estimates for quality and ear traits in sweet corn
Elbio Treicha Cardoso; Maria Jane Cruz de Melo Sereno and José Fernandes Barbosa Neto
The development of cultivars with reduced pericarp thickness, high sugar content and husks covering ear tip will improve the market for Brazilian sweet corn and may open a new market for export. The knowledge of parent-offspring relationship helps to choose a breeding method, to decide selection intensity, and to predict genetic gains for the traits under selection. The objective of this work was to estimate heritability for pericarp thickness, soluble solids content and percent of ear tip in three open-pollinated sweet corn populations – BR400, BR401, and BR402 – using half and full-sib families. Genetic variability was detected for all traits in the evaluated populations. The estimated heritability for pericarp thickness was larger than those estimated for soluble solids content, and percent of ear tip for all populations in this study. As a consequence, the expected genetic gains will be larger for pericarp thickness than for the other traits evaluated in this work.