Estimates of Genetic Parameters and Prediction of Breeding Values Among Full-Sib Sugarcane Families for Commercial Cane Sugar Yield Traits Through REML/BLUP Analysis

The objective of our study was to estimate genetic parameters and predict the genotypic values for CCS yield traits among full-sib sugarcane families evaluated over three crop cycles. Four hundred and fifty hybrids from fifteen full-sib families representing twelve inter-varietal crosses and three crosses between intergeneric hybrids involving Erianthus and Saccharum species were evaluated in the first clonal trial in a randomized block design with two replications. REML/BLUP analysis revealed a high contribution of genetic variance (σ²_g) towards phenotypic variance (σ²_f) for most of the yield and quality traits explaining that genetic progress could be possible by direct selection. High heritability coefficients observed for cane diameter, H.R. brix%, juice brix%, juice sucrose%, CCS% and CCS yield, indicated the predominance of additive gene action in the expression of these traits. Higher repeatabilities estimated for most of the sugar yield parameters implied that families retained superiority across the crop cycles (plant and ratoon) which ensures greater selection accuracy with minimum number of harvests. BLUP analysis results indicated that four families, viz., Co 85,002 × Co 8209, Co 86,011 × CoT 8201, Co 86,002 × CoC 671 and Co 11,015 × Co 775, are elite parental combinations with high genotypic values for CCS yield. Therefore, our study emphasized the utility of REML/BLUP analysis in family selection enabling the identification of superior recombinants for CCS yield in early stages of sugarcane breeding programmes.