Genetic gain capitalization in the first cycle of recurrent selection in popcorn at Ceará’s Cariri

Abstract

Popcorn lacks cultivars that are productive, stable and adapted to the cultivation regions. Therefore, the present work aimed to estimate the genetic gain in the first intrapopulation recurrent selection cycle between full-sibs, by means of selection index, at Ceará’sCariri. It was obtained 210 families from the “Dona Iva” population, belonging to the Federal University of Cariri - UFCA’s germplasm bank. The progenies were evaluated in two environments: Granjeiro-CE and at the experimental field at UFCA, Crato-CE, using randomized block design with two repetitions inside “sets”. For the assessment, it was evaluated plant height (AP), ear height (AE), plant final stand (NP), mass of ear with grains (PE), grain yield (RG) and expansion capacity (CE). Data were submitted to analysis of variance by the F test and estimated genetic and phenotypic parameters. The prediction of the selection gains were obtained by the indexes of Mulamba and Mock and of Smith and Hazel. When the Smith and Hazel selection index was evaluated, it was not possible to predict gains for CE. On the other hand, Mulamba and Mock selection index with the economic weight PA (arbitrage weight by attempt) provided the highest gain for expansion capacity (8.15%) and elevated gain for RG (24.29%). Therefore, based on this weight it was selected 38 superior genotypes for recombination and the aforementioned gains are expected in the first selection cycle of the “Iva” popcorn population.