Viability of the use of inbred progenies in recurrent selection in perennial plants.

The viability of using inbred progenies, i.e., S1 or S2, in recurrent selection programs for perennial plants was evaluated in comparison with full sibs using the expression of gain from selection. Populations with different genetic properties, were considered in obtaining the estimates, with the population genetic variance always equal to 1 used as reference, as well as different experimental strategies. The estimates of genetic covariances between average additive effects of the alleles and the dominance effects of homozygotes, which occur when S1 or S2 is used, although negative for the lower values of the average allele frequencies, were always smaller than the additive genetic variance. Per unit of time, the total gain from selection with S1 was greater than with S2 and full sibs. However, it is argued that the best strategy is a cycle with S1, followed by a cloned progeny test with full sibs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]