Choosing parent tropical wheat genotypes through genetic dissimilarity based on REML/BLUP

Abstract Parent selection is a crucial step in breeding programs. In the present study, we evaluated the genetic diversity in tropical wheat genotypes using best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) by different grouping methods. We identified potential parents to compose a crossing block with the aim of improving wheat for the Brazilian Cerrado. A total of 41 tropical wheat genotypes were evaluated in a field experiment. The evaluated traits included days to flowering; disease symptoms of fusarium head blight, blast, and leaf rust; flag leaf height; plant height; spike mass; hectoliter weight; and grain yield. The BLUPs were predicted and, from these, the standardized average Euclidean distance was calculated. Then, UPGMA, Tocher, and principal component clusters were generated from this genotypic distance matrix. Evaluating genetic diversity based on BLUP allowed the identification of two groups of highly dissimilar genotypes with high estimated genotypic values with which to compose a partial diallel.