Allocation of Experimental Resources Used in Potato Breeding to Minimize the Variance of Genotype Mean Chip Color and Tuber Composition

摘要

Breeders strive to select superior genotypes despite the challenges that environmental variation and environment x genotype interactions bring in increasing phenotypic variance. Effective selection requires experimental design that minimizes variance of genotype means and therefore allows for the identification of superior genotypes. The variance components calculated from three extensive datasets were used in modeling experiments to determine how experimental replication and sampling affected the variance of genotype mean for composition or fried chip color of tubers from Solanum species including the cultivated potato Solanum tuberosum L. Maximizing experimental replication over years and locations with limited sampling minimized variance of genotype means for chip color, tuber sugar concentrations, and tuber dry matter. It is suggested that in the early stages of a potato breeding program, more precise evaluations of the genetic potential of individual clones would be achieved through the use of small plots evaluated over several locations and/or years rather than increased replication at one location.