Abstract
Heritabilities for each of three different height and width ratios describing fruit shape were estimated from measurements on a population of seedlings comprising 17 families of European and Asian pear parentage in the Hort Research pear cultivar breeding programme. In families with European cultivars as parents, the pyriform curvature in the upper, or stem end, half of the fruit was also quantified and heritabilities estimated. Heritabilities were computed using parent-offspring regression and from consideration of the variance components. Heritabilities estimated from parent-offspring regression were generally high and higher than those estimated from variance component analysis, although within the limits of error. Heritability estimates for the height: maximum width ratio were > 0.5 by both methods of estimation indicating that fairly rapid genetic gain could be expected.
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White, A.G., Alspach, P.A., Weskett, R.H. et al. Heritability of fruit shape in pears. Euphytica 112, 1–7 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1003761118890
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1003761118890