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Alfalfa forage yield and leaf/stem ratio: narrow-sense heritability, genetic correlation, and parent selection procedures

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Abstract

Forage yield, and forage quality as inferred by high leaf/stem ratio, are pivotal alfalfa breeding targets. However, information on narrow-sense heritability (\(h_{N}^{2}\)) and genetic correlation (r g ) of these traits is scant and mostly inferred from limited germplasm samples and trait observation. This study aimed at: (i) generating \(h_{N}^{2}\), r g and complementary information based on 125 parent genotypes representative of Italian germplasm evaluated as clones, half-sib progenies and selfed (S1) progenies for dry-matter yield over 12 harvests and leaf/stem ratio across two harvests; (ii) assessing the consistency of parent value across evaluation procedures; (iii) verifying leaf/stem ratio changes in two genetic bases selected for higher forage yield. Seeds per tripped flower of selfed parents ranged from 0.16 to 2.53, with high broad-sense heritability on a genotype mean basis (\(h_{B}^{2}\) = 0.81). Genotype cloning success across three experiments displayed moderate \(h_{B}^{2}\) (0.44). Forage yield exhibited large genetic variation but fairly modest \(h_{N}^{2}\) (0.21), whereas leaf/stem ratio featured high \(h_{N}^{2}\) (0.75). Inbreeding depression for yield averaged 39 %. Non-additive genetic effects were almost as large as additive ones for DM yield, and extremely low for leaf/stem ratio. Additive genetic effects had greater impact than inbreeding depression on parent yielding ability based on S1 progenies. Forage yield and leaf/stem ratio were independent according to genetic correlations for parent-offspring (r g  = −0.18) and half-sib progeny data (r g  = −0.33) and the lack of leaf/stem ratio change in material selected for higher yield. Forage yield can profit of genotypic selection, whereas phenotypic selection on large plant numbers is preferable for leaf/stem ratio.

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Acknowledgments

This work was carried out within the projects ‘Germplasm collections’ and ‘Plant genetic resources/FAO Treaty’ funded by the Italian Ministry of Agricultural and Forestry Policies. I am grateful to Sandro Proietti for excellent technical assistance, and to Renata Guatteri, Katia Negri and Fiamma Rosi for their contribution to various stages of the experiment work.

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  1. Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CRA), Research Centre for Fodder Crops and Dairy Productions, viale Piacenza 29, 26900, Lodi, Italy

    P. Annicchiarico

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Annicchiarico, P. Alfalfa forage yield and leaf/stem ratio: narrow-sense heritability, genetic correlation, and parent selection procedures. Euphytica 205, 409–420 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-015-1399-y

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