title: Impact of interpopulation divergence on additive and dominance variance in hybrid populations.
abstract: We present a theoretical proof that the ratio of the dominance vs. the additive variance decreases with increasing genetic divergence between two populations. While the dominance variance is the major component of the variance due to specific combining ability (sigma(SCA)(2)), the additive variance is the major component of the variance due to general combining ability (sigma(GCA)(2)). Therefore, we conclude that interpopulation improvement becomes more efficient with divergent than with genetically similar heterotic groups, because performance of superior hybrids can be predicted on the basis of general combining ability effects.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Plant Breeding, Seed Science and Population Genetics, University of Hohenheim, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Reif
authors.forename: F-M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Gumpert
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Melchinger
mesh_terms: D002678:Chimera; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D040582:Inheritance Patterns; D008957:Models, Genetic