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Is the variability in my crop due to genetic or environmental factors? Using heritability to solve this question

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Abstract

Usually is common to see great differences among plants in our crops, this can allow us to think about selection of some plants with the best traits in order to show that character in the next generation and thus improve our crops. Nevertheless, we forget that the observed phenotypic variance of our crop is due to several factors as genetic and environmental components. Knowing how these factors affect traits is an important question because it can tell us whether a selection program is viable or not, which can save effort, time, and money. Here, we present a case of study in a Tabasco chili pepper crop from southwestern Colombia where farmers generally practice selection ignoring the genetic and environmental components of the selected traits. To reveal these components, we proposed to use the estimation of heritability in a narrow sense, for which we developed measurements in two generations of plants and we applied a simple regression model in concordance with the expected inbreeding value for an autogamous species. Subsequently, we amplified microsatellite molecular markers to support heritability values based on genetic diversity and confirmed whether the assumed inbreeding value for their estimation based on the life history of the species, was correct.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the program Posgrado en Ciencias-Biología at the Universidad del Valle for their support during project implementation. We also thank the Escuela de Ingeniería Agrícola of the Universidad del Valle for allowing the development of the two phases of cultivation in 2016-2018 and its laboratory staff, specially to Hebert Hernández. We thank engineer Edilberto Muñoz and technician Ricardo Pereira from Hugo Restrepo and Co. for their support and help during project implementation. Special thanks to Alexander Ramírez for the support provided in the Molecular Biology Laboratory at Universidad del Valle. We thank the agricultural engineer Richar Pomeo for advice and help in the development of the first crop cycle. Finally, we thank Luz Clemencia Aristizábal and Jenny Gallo for their support throughout the project. This work is dedicated to the memory of Carlos Alberto Duque Castaño, who always showed his admiration for the project.

Funding

This work was supported by the macro project: “Implementation of the Regional Center for Research and Innovation in Bioinformatics and Photonics, Cali, Valle del Cauca, Occidente” under Grant (BPIN 2013000100007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grupo de Estudios Ecogenéticos y de Biología Molecular, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Exactas, Universidad del Valle, A.A. 25157, Cali, Colombia

    Mauricio Peñuela, Ronald Viáfara-Vega, Leidy Laura Arias, Héctor Cifuentes-Silva, José López & Heiber Cárdenas

  2. Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Bioinformática y Fotónica (CIBioFi), Cali, Colombia

    Mauricio Peñuela, Ronald Viáfara-Vega, Leidy Laura Arias, Héctor Cifuentes-Silva, José López & Heiber Cárdenas

Authors
  1. Mauricio Peñuela
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  2. Ronald Viáfara-Vega
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  3. Leidy Laura Arias
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  4. Héctor Cifuentes-Silva
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  5. José López
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  6. Heiber Cárdenas
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Contributions

MP: Conceptualization, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, writing- original draft preparation. RV-V: Investigation, data curation, formal analysis, validation, writing-original draft preparation. LLA: Investigation, writing-original draft preparation. HC-S: Investigation, writing-original draft preparation. JL: Investigation. HC: Conceptualization, writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Mauricio Peñuela.

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Peñuela, M., Viáfara-Vega, R., Arias, L.L. et al. Is the variability in my crop due to genetic or environmental factors? Using heritability to solve this question. J. Crop Sci. Biotechnol. 25, 161–172 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12892-021-00120-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12892-021-00120-6

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