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Genetic parameters and genetic gains across three breeding cycles for growth and form traits of Eucalyptus regnans in New Zealand

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Abstract

Eucalyptus regnans has been planted mainly for short-fibre pulp in New Zealand, but it also has potential for veneer and solid-wood products. A breeding programme is now in its third cycle. The objective of this study was to estimate variance components and heritabilities for growth, form and health traits across three breeding cycles using incomplete-block and spatial linear mixed tree models, while studying the genotype by environment interaction and estimated genetic gains since breeding began. Estimated heritability of tree height at age 3 and diameter at breast height (DBH) at different ages ranged from low to moderate (ĥ 2 = 0.04 to 0.37). Form traits were of low heritability (ĥ 2 = 0.04 to 0.15). Foliage diseases and frost tolerance were monitored at the early stages of the breeding programme, where resistance to foliage pests and diseases was of low-to-moderate heritability (ĥ 2 = 0.11 to 0.37). Low estimated genetic correlations between sites in the third breeding cycle indicated significant genotype by environment interaction for height at age 3 but non-significant interaction for tree malformation. In the third cycle, with the selection proportion of 30 %, estimated genetic gain was 9 % for height at age 3 and 31 % for DBH when forwards selection was applied. Selection for the next generation will need to be undertaken carefully, given the significant genotype by environment interaction, likely using site-specific breeding values. Genetic correlations among the particular traits did not appear to be an important issue. Implications of these results on the future breeding and deployment of E. regnans are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

The Future Forests Research, the Forest Owners Association, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment of New Zealand and the Scion Core Funding are acknowledged for funding this study. The authors would like to thank M. J. Heaphy for the environmental data and site maps used in this study. M. D. Wilcox is gratefully acknowledged for his earlier work for the New Zealand E. regnans breeding programme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Scion, Private Bag 3020, Rotorua, New Zealand

    M. Suontama, C. B. Low, G. T. Stovold, M. A. Miller, K. R. Fleet, Y. Li & H. S. Dungey

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  1. M. Suontama
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  2. C. B. Low
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  3. G. T. Stovold
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  4. M. A. Miller
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  5. K. R. Fleet
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  6. Y. Li
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  7. H. S. Dungey
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Correspondence to M. Suontama.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Data archiving statement

Data used in the study will be submitted to TreeGenes database. The submission of the phenotypic data as described in Table 2 and in the section of Materials and methods/Data sets, along with the pedigree data including identity information of trees, mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers will be completed prior to the final acceptance.

Additional information

Communicated by R. Burdon

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Breeding

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Suontama, M., Low, C.B., Stovold, G.T. et al. Genetic parameters and genetic gains across three breeding cycles for growth and form traits of Eucalyptus regnans in New Zealand. Tree Genetics & Genomes 11, 133 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-015-0957-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-015-0957-8

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