Inheritance and Linkage Analysis of Frost Injury in Lentil

Improved cotton fiber properties for the textile industry depends largely on genetic progress. Progress towards better fiber quality could be enhanced if breeders knew whether choice of fiber property measurement instrument affects direct and correlated responses to selection. The objectives of our study were to (i) compare heritability of a fiber property measured by single-instrument (fibrograph, micronaire, stelometer), that measure one or a few related properties, with the same fiber property measured by the integrated high volume instrument (HVI), capable of measuring multiple fiber properties, and (ii) compare direct and correlated selection response of fiber strength measured by the stelometer single instrument with that measured by the HVI. Other fiber properties important to textile processing including neps, short fiber content, immature fiber content, and fineness were measured by the Advanced Fiber Information System (AFIS). Heritability and selection response were estimated in two populations derived from mating the excellent fiber quality germplasm lines PD-3-14 and PD 5363 with the lesser fiber quality germplasm LA 870222. Heritability of micronaire reading (by micronaire instrument) and length (2.5% span length by fibrograph measurement) by single-instrument was similar to that measured by HVI. Heritability of fiber strength was greater when measured with stelometer than HVI, but the subpopulations with highest fiber strength by stelometer or HVI measurement differed little for fiber strength when evaluated with either instrument. Heritability of short fiber content averaged about 0.2, fiber fineness about 0.5, and immature fiber content about 0.6, indicating the potential for genetic progress. Overall, early generation selection for fiber strength by HVI measurement resulted in desirable fiber profiles.