Inheritance of root distribution in common bean and selection strategy

Abstract The objective was to determine the predominant genetic inheritance in the trait root distribution in common bean and define the selection strategy. An experiment involving 40 genetic constitutions (segregating and fixed populations), was developed during the agricultural years 2014/15 and 2015/16. The experiment was arranged in a Federer's augmented block design with 3 replicates. The root distribution was evaluated by Bohm method. Estimates of mean contrasts between the F4 progenies and their parents did not reveal any significant differences in any comparison. The generations F5 and F6 presented the same behavior. The distribution of the component of the additive genetic variance was similarly conducted for the segregating generations. Thus, since the predominant inheritance of the root distribution is additive, the selection of this trait is recommended to be performed at the end of the breeding program.