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Heritability of cooking time and water absorption traits in dry beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) using a North Carolina design II mating scheme
Abstract
Partitioning among the entry source of variance for the water absorption into male and female effects within sets, their interactions, and the environment main effect indicated that the values were highly significant in both F3 and F4. The GCA male and GCA female effects had a much larger component of variance than the SCA. This indicates that additive genetic variances were important. The large magnitude in the heritability and the range in the mean of water absorption, and the estimated high response to selection indicate that the population can be improved through selection as shown by the presence of genetic gain in selection for the trait. It appears from the results obtained in this study that soaking dry beans before cooking is indicative of the amount of time required to render them eating soft. Hence water absorption can be used as a secondary selection index or indirect selection criteria for cooking time in a crop improvement program. In both traits studied, narrow sense heritability estimates were high (76% to 85 %).
Tanz. J. Sci. Vol.29(1) 2003: 25-34