Mass selection for seed size in segregating wheat populations

Abstract

During the years of 1983 and 1984, two experiments were carried out at the "Estação Experimental Agronômica" of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, at Guaíba, RS, Brazil, aiming to study the selection and their effects on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) populations with different levels of segregation. Four selection methods (populational, large, small and large + small seed size) were applied in five wheat populations in F₄, F₅ and F₆ generations, and tested in subsequent generations in relation to eight traits. The results showed that genetic variability among the genotypes studied supplied genetics improvement only in the populations where mass selection for seed sire was used.