Heritability estimated by different methods in four generations of progenies from a pigeon pea cross

Abstract

The objective of this work was to compare different methods to estimate heritability in 30 pigeon pea families from the F3, F4, F5, and F6 generations, for nine variables. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with three replicates and 20 plants per plot. Broad-sense heritability was estimated by the analysis of variance (ANOVA) [h²_b-E(MS)], restricted maximum likelihood/best linear unbiased prediction (REML/BLUP) (h²_b-REML), parent-offspring regression (h²_PO), and standard deviation unit (h²_UP). The h²_b-E(MS) and h²_b-REML estimates were similar for seven of the analyzed variables. For a higher genetic control and easier selection, values of h²_b-E(MS) and h²_b-REML >0.70 were estimated for two variables in four generations, two variables in three generations, three variables in two generations, and one variable in one generation. Values of h²_UP and h²_PO >0.70 were obtained for four and five variables, respectively. The estimates via regression or parent-offspring correlation showed some values outside the expected range of 0 to 1. The ANOVA [h²_b-E(MS)] and REML/BLUP [h²_b-REML] methods are the best to estimate pigeon pea heritability.