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Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering >> 2017, Volume 4, Issue 4 doi: 10.15302/J-FASE-2017184

Age-related trends in genetic parameters for wood properties in

. Key Laboratory of Tree Breeding and Cultivation of State Forestry Administration, Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China.. State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China.. Key Laboratory of Silviculture, Co-Innovation Center of Jiangxi Typical Trees Cultivation and Utilization, College of Forestry, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China

Accepted: 2017-12-27 Available online: 2017-12-10

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Abstract

Wood properties are important traits that determine quality of structural wood. With the aim of performing efficient early selection for wood properties, we investigated genetic variation in 20 clones aged from 4 to 15 years for four quality traits: wood density, wall thickness to lumen area, microfibrillar angle (MFA) and modulus of elasticity (MOE). We observed that age-related trends in overall means varied for different traits: MFA decreased with the age, while the others generally increased with the age. Phenotypic variance always showed significant differences from the age of 8 years onward, with CVG ranging from 4% to 25%. Also, clonal repeatability increased steadily until 9 years old and then kept medium or higher intensity (0.4–0.8). After the age of 6, genetic correlations were generally higher than phenotypic correlations. Estimates of early selection efficiency suggested that the optimal selection age for wood density was at age 5–6 years, while it was 9–10 years for the other traits. In combination with previous results, we proposed a comprehensive early selection strategy for larch clonal breeding that involved selection based on nursery rooting ability, phenology, growth traits, and wood properties.

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