Procedures for identification of superior progenies in successive generations of evaluation in common bean

Abstract

When breeding the common bean in Brazil, the best progenies are chosen, normally, from solely the generation under analysis at the conclusion of the evaluation, without considering what occurred in the past. However, a number of recently published studies show that if an evaluation were to consider all relevant generations, the gain from selection could be higher, especially when an index that involves information from the population that gave rise to the progenies is used. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare three selection procedures in the evaluation of successive generations and to discuss the implications of the progeny × environment interaction in terms of success of selection. Cycle XV progenies from a bean recurrent selection program were used. The traits evaluated were grain yield, plant architecture and grain type. Analysis of variance was carried out and the variance components and heritabilities were estimated. The same analyses were made using mixed models. A selection index weighted by the effect of populations and progenies within populations (WSI) was also obtained. We estimated the correlations between the classification of the progenies using the three procedures and the coincidence of the best progenies evaluated in S0:4 with the progenies in the previous generations. We found that the classification of the progenies by the BLUP’s and WSI did not expressively differ from that obtained when using only the mean, even when a number of generations were considered in the selection. None of the procedures used effectively mitigated the effect of the progeny × environment interaction.