Summary
The inheritance of nitrate content in lettuce was analysed using 16 F2 populations and three F3 populations. Frequency distributions of nitrate content in F2 and F3 populations were unimodal and symmetrical, indicating a quantitative inheritance. Both significant positive and negative deviations of the F2 mean from the mid-parent value were found, indicating dominance or epistasis. Deviations towards low nitrate content were more frequent than deviations in the other direction. Estimates of heritabilities for nitrate content in the F2 populations ranged from 18% to 69% and were in most cases above 50%. Crosses between low nitrate cultivars did not have lower estimates of heritability in the F2 than crosses between cultivars with larger differences in nitrate content. In one case a genotype x experiment interaction for nitrate content of parental cultivars was found.
Three F3 populations of crosses between cultivars with low nitrate content were analysed. Estimates of heritabilities for F3 line means ranged from 78% to 91% and estimates of the genetic standard deviation of nitrate content in unselected advanced generations ranged from 0.24–0.33 g kg−1. The estimates of heritabilities and of genetic variation in advanced generations offer good prospects of selection of low nitrate genotypes in lettuce. A comparison of efficiency of selection in the F2 generation and F3 line selection is made.
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Reinink, K., Groenwold, R. The inheritance of nitrate content in lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.). Euphytica 36, 733–744 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00051856
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00051856