Estimation of Genetic Variance Components for Corn Ear Rot in RIL Populations Derived from Three Biparental Crosses

Classical Quantitative Genetics offers statistical approaches to estimate variance components of important agronomical traits, such as diseases resistance, through different experimental designs. However, the use of RIL in these approaches is limited. As Recombinant Inbred Lines are considered important for developing special breeding projects, we propose a new methodological approach to simultaneously estimate broad and narrow sense heritabilities. This proposed model was applied to calculate heritabilities for resistance to corn ear rots caused by Fusarium verticillioides in three independent RIL populations analyzed by nested ANOVA. Fusarium Incidence (%) and Fusarium Severity heritabilities were significant. The proposed approach proved to be useful for estimating broad and narrow sense heritabilities in the same environment and with these genotypes which is advantageous for corn breeders.