Gene Effects, Combining Ability and Correlation of Characteristics in F2 Populations of Burley Tobacco Cultivars (Nicotiana tabacum L.)

The results of diallel analysis of 7 parents and 21 F2 progenies of Burley tobacco cultivars, which were transplanted in 2002 as RCBD with 3 replications in the Tobacco Research Center, Rasht, Iran, showed significant genetic differences among genotypes and high GCA and SCA for most of the traits. Therefore the role of additive and non-additive (dominant) effects of genes on the formation of the corresponding characteristics was important. The graphical analysis of progenies of diallel crosses showed partial dominant effect for nicotine percentage in leaves. The distribution of parents around regression line showed most dominant genes in cultivars B.CDL 28, B.Banket, and B.21 while cultivars B.14 and B.TN 86 hade most recessive genes for this characteristic. Also the low and high percentages of nicotine were controlled by dominant and recessive genes, respectively. Estimated simple (phenotypic) relationships between characteristics showed significant correlation between dry leaf yield of tobacco cultivars and its components such as leaf area index (LAI) (r = 0.482**), time to flowering (r = 0.440*), appearance of leaves (r = 0.648**) and percent age of dry matter of leaves. The path coefficient analysis showed very high direct influence of dry matter percent age of leaves, appearance of leaves, and LAI in dry leaf yield. These characteristics would be a favorite selection index for increasing tobacco yield, since characteristics such as leaves per plant, plant height and time to flowering have no significant direct influence on dry leaf yield of tobacco cultivars. These yield components explain 82% of variance of tobacco yield. Results of factor analysis, using principal Component Analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation showed that characteristics such as leaves per plant, LAI, and plant height with high positive and significant factor loading as a morphological factor explain 44% of data variance. The second factor including such traits as time to flowering, appearance, and percent of dry matter of leaves with high positive and significant factor loading, form a physiological factor. These two factors together explains 65% of variance of dry leaf yield of tobacco cultivars.