Correlation and path analyses in soybean lines sowed at different sowing dates

Abstract

The association between yield and other plant traits can be used for breeding purposes. Soybean yield is highly influenced by photoperiod and temperature and sowing outside the ideal date range usually results in yield loss. In general, plant breeding programs aim to develop cultivars with wide adaptation to planting dates. However, in Brazil, there are no reports on the association between yield and some important agronomic traits (days to maturity, plant height at flowering and number of trifoliolate nodes) related to adaptation to a wider sowing date period (September to December). This work seeks to establish and quantify these relationships aiming to identify an indirect criteria for yield selection in soybean, analyzing random inbred lines derived from the crosses between the FT-2, BR-13 and OCEPAR-8 cultivars and the BR85-29009 advanced line. A completely randomized design was used. The correlation and path analyses showed that the relationships between yield and the other traits varied according to the cross, sowing date and year. The phenotypic and genotypic correlations between them were essentially positive. The path analyses showed that days to maturity and plant height at flowering can, individually, help in the selection of higher yielding materials, specially in November and October. Also, an index combining days to maturity, height at flowering and number of trifoliolate nodes can contribute to yield selection.