Inheritance and relationships of important agronomic traits in almond

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Inheritance and relationships of important agronomic traits in almond

11 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables.The inheritance of 16 important agronomic traits and its relationship were studied for four years in a population of 167 almond [P. dulcis (Mill.) D.A. Webb] seedlings obtained from a cross between the French selection ‘R1000’ (‘Tardy Nonpareil’ × ‘Tuono’) and the Spanish cultivar ‘Desmayo Largueta’. For some traits (blooming and leafing date) descendants segregated between the value of both progenitors, meanwhile for others the mean of the offspring was lower (bloom density, productivity and ripening date) or higher (in-shell/kernel ratio and double kernels). As expected, kernel bitterness and self-incompatibility behaved as monogenic traits. Some important correlations between traits were detected. The implications of the transmission and the correlation of these traits in the breeding programmes are discussed.The work was financed with the projects ‘‘Mejora Gene´ tica del Almendro’’ (AGL2001-1054-C03-01 and AGL2004-06674-C02-02) from the ‘‘Plan Nacional de I + D’’ of Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology.Peer reviewe