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Estimating genetic parameters of architectural and reproductive traits in young macadamia cultivars

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Abstract

Macadamia in the orchard environment is relatively unaltered from its natural form, and there is considerable scope to alter vegetative and reproductive architecture with the aim of improving yield efficiency through breeding. An understanding of the genetic and environmental control of architecture and the dynamics between vegetative and reproductive characteristics are fundamental to identifying traits for yield improvement. This experiment calculated the broad-sense heritability (H) of architectural traits and genetic correlations between vegetative and reproductive traits over 2 years. Cutting-grown clones (n = 3) of 15 macadamia genotypes were subsampled from a randomised high-density plot planted in 2011 in South East Queensland, Australia, and observed for two seasons between 2015 and 2017. Clonal values from independent linear mixed models for multiple traits were combined in principal component analysis (PCA) to provide an insight to potential genetic relationships between traits, and genetic correlations were calculated from multivariate linear mixed model analysis. At the tree scale, canopy volume and yield had low H (0.07 and 0.14, respectively), implying a strong environmental influence on these complex traits. Architectural components of canopy volume and yield were considered at multiple scales, for which H ranged from 0.06 to 0.68, suggesting architectural traits at lower scales may be manipulated by breeding. Specific traits displayed strong genetic relationships with yield and canopy volume, suggesting that indirect selection for yield efficiency may be possible via selection for architectural and floral traits, to improve future macadamia cultivars.

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Funding

This research has been funded by Hort Innovation, using the macadamia research and development levies and contributions from the Australian Government. Hort Innovation is the grower-owned, not-for-profit research and development corporation for Australian horticulture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queensland Alliance for Agriculture & Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, Maroochy Research Facility, PO Box 5083 SCMC, Nambour, QLD, 4570, Australia

    Benjamin D. Toft, Mobashwer Alam & Bruce Topp

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  1. Benjamin D. Toft
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  2. Mobashwer Alam
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  3. Bruce Topp
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Correspondence to Benjamin D. Toft.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Communicated by M. Wirthensohn

Data archiving statement

Supplementary Table 1 contains raw data on architectural and collected over 2 years. The sequence information for DarT markers is available at https://doi.org/10.14264/uql.2018.394.

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ESM 1

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Toft, B.D., Alam, M. & Topp, B. Estimating genetic parameters of architectural and reproductive traits in young macadamia cultivars. Tree Genetics & Genomes 14, 50 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-018-1265-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-018-1265-x

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