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Research article2005Peer reviewed

Use of trait combinations for evaluating juvenile-mature relationships in Picea abies (L.)

Jansson Gunnar, Jonsson Alena, Eriksson Gösta

Abstract

One of the aims of retrospective early tests in growth chambers is to find juvenile traits that can be used as predictors of future growth. As growth is a complex trait it has been difficult to find a relationship between results from field tests and single juvenile traits measured in the growth chamber. The objective of this study was to analyse whether using a combination of juvenile traits measured in the growth chamber would improve the relationship with traits measured in field trials. Data from four growth-chamber experiments and three field trials were used in the analysis. In total 13 different treatments and 134 different traits were studied. The growth-chamber experiments included different temperature, nutrient availability, and watering regimes. The genetic relationships between stem volume in the field trials and a combination of juvenile traits in the growth-chamber experiments were weak, and only a small part of the variation in the field trials could be explained by a combination of juvenile traits from the growth-chamber experiments. In some cases strong relationships were found, but they occurred randomly and appeared to have little biological relevance. The genetic correlations between the same traits measured in nonlimiting treatments in the four growth-chamber experiments were also weak. No strong, consistent juvenile–mature relationships were detected, despite the inclusion of a combination of traits in the analysis. One possible reason for this is that different sets of genes regulate growth at different ages

Published in

Tree Genetics and Genomes
2005, Volume: 2005:1, number: 1, pages: 21-29
Publisher: Springer-Verlag GmbH