TITLE:
Family Selection as a Strategy for Stem Borer (Eldana Saccharina Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) Resistance Breeding in South Africa
AUTHORS:
Marvellous Zhou
KEYWORDS:
Best Linear Unbiased Predictors, Predicted Selection Gains, Broad Sense Heritability
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.7 No.14,
October
19,
2016
ABSTRACT: Eldana saccharina is the most damaging stem borer of sugarcane in
South Africa causing US$90 million losses of revenue annually. The breeding
strategy at the South African Sugarcane Research Institute is based on evaluating
parents for breeding values using progeny data derived from family plots and
selecting parents with high breeding values for crossing. Family selection
entails selecting whole populations of progenies based on family mean. The
objective of this study was to evaluate the contribution of family selection to
eldana resistance breeding. Data were collected from stage 1 (seedlings stage)
trials. In each plot, stalks were examined for eldana entry and exit holes and
stalks with borings were counted. The number of bored stalks was expressed as a
percent of total stalks and subjected to analysis of variance. The family broad
sense heritabilities ranged from 0.51 - 0.56 compared with 0.17 for Individual
Genotype Selection (IGS). Predicted family selection gains ranged from 20% to
69% compared with 18% for IGS indicating the value of family selection. Female
parental effects F-values (1.63 - 2.01) were significant (P = 0.0017 - 0.0041) compared with non-significant male F-values
(1.33 - 1.41) and (P = 0.088 -
0.1464) suggesting maternal effects. Crossing parents with higher resistance such
as 96M0058 × 94M0017, 87M0965 × 98G1166 and 97M0653 × 94M0017 produced
significantly (P