Higher-precision experimental statistics for the selection of early and upright common bean lines

ABSTRACT. The development of early and upright common bean cultivars is necessary to meet the demand of producers. The objectives of this work were to evaluate more precise experimental statistics for the selection of early and upright common bean lines and identify the traits that provide better genetic differentiation between lines. For this purpose, 156 common bean lines of different grain colours were evaluated in 23 experiments carried out in the southern region of Brazil between 1998 and 2015. The traits related to earliness (flowering and cycle) and upright plant architecture (lodging, insertion of the first pod and insertion of the last pod) were evaluated with high experimental precision by determining F-test values for genotype (Fc), heritability (h2), and selective accuracy (SA). In the experiments with Fc ≥ 2.00, h2 ≥ 49.00%, and SA ≥ 0.70, the best genetic differentiation of early common bean lines was performed by the cycle; and the best genetic differentiation of common bean lines with upright plant architecture was carried out by the insertion of the first and the last pod.