GENETIC DIVERSITY AND COMBINING ABILITIES FOR ROOT TRAITS OF SUGAR BEET POLLINATORS

Information about genetic diversity and combining abilities of sugar beet parental components are of a great importance for hybrid creation. The aim of this research was to evaluate genetic diversity among sugar beet pollinators from different breeding programs and their combining abilities for main root traits of sugar beet, root weight, sugar content and sugar yield. As plant material were used eight pollinators originating from three different USDA-ARS breeding programs and four from Institute of field and vegetable crops Novi Sad. The analysis of variance and Duncan's multiple range test revealed significant differences (p = 0.05) among pollinators for all investigated traits. Pollinator CR10 differs from all others in terms of quantitative traits and in terms of combining ability. Despite small root weight CR10 had significantly positive GCA for that trait and showed that genotypes with small root should not be automatically discarded. Pollinators from Institute of field and vegetable crops used in this research had negative GCA for root weight and should be used only as hosts for introduction of new germplasm in future breeding program.