Heritability of consumer preference in Gerbera

Summary

Heritabilities and response to selection for consumer preference were estimated for a population of Gerbera. Broad-sense heritability was estimated to be 62 percent. Narrow-sense heritability was estimated by parentoffspring regression to be 76 percent, by full-sib family analysis to be 54 percent, and by half-sib family analysis to be 72 percent. These estimates indicate that most of the variance for consumer preference is genetic and that most of the genetic variance is additive. Estimates of realized heritability averaged 71 percent indicating substantial response of this population to selection for consumer preference.