Heritability of hull percentage in oat

Low hull percentage has long been recognized as a valuable measure of grain quality in oat, A vena saliva L,; however, reliable selection for low hull percentage has been impeded by a lack of understanding of its heritability. The objective of this study was to investigate the heritability of hull percentage in three oat crosses, involving the cultivars Cascade, Robert, and AC Marie. which have 30, 25, and 23% hall, respectively. Populations of F-2-derived F-4 through F-7 lines were grown in replicated or unreplicated trials at several locations in western Canada from 1992 to 1995. Heritability estimates were calculated based on hull percentage data determined by mechanically dehulling 2-g kernel mixtures or samples of 50 primary kernels, Primary; kernel hull percentage data, collected from replicated trials at multiple locations, were used to evaluate the effect of genotype x location interaction on phenotype. Broad-sense heritability estimates by parent-offspring regression ranged from 0.35 to 0.72 for hull percentage of 2-g kernel mixtures, and 0.80 to 0.90 fur hull percentage of 50 primary kernels. An evaluation of variance components showed highly significant genotype and location effects for primary kernel hull percentage Genotype effects had a greater influence than location on primary kernel hull percentage, whereas the effect of genotype x location interaction was relatively less important. High broad-sense heritability estimates fur hull percentage support the use of early generation selection for reduced hull content in oat.