TOLERANCE TO ALUMINUM AND AGRONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS IN WHEAT HYBRID POPULATIONS: VARIANCE, HERITABILITY AND CORRELATIONSDiallel crosses were made involving the cultivars: 'BH-1146', aluminum tolerant; 'IAC-161', moderately aluminum tolerant, and 'Anahuac', aluminum sensitive. Parents, F1s, F2s and reciprocal backcrosses were tested for their seedling reaction to 6 mg/L of Al3+ in nutrient solution, in laboratory conditions, and evaluated for grain yield, plant height, head length and rachis internode length at maturity, in pots, under screen house conditions in Campinas, SP, Brazil. Narrow sense heritability estimates were moderate to high for plant height (0.638 - 0.860), moderate for aluminum tolerance (0.409 - 0.593) and head length (0.390 - 0.522) except for the hybrid 'Anahuac' x 'IAC-161', which presented a high value (0.851), and low to moderate for grain yield (0.054 - 0.463) and rachis internode length (0.090 - 0.595). Phenotypic correlations between tolerance to Al3+ and plant height, rachis internode length and grain yield were only significant for one of the hybrids. Phenotypic correlations between plant height with grain yield and head length, and between head length with rachis internode length were positive and significant for all crosses, showing association between these characters. Results suggest that it would be possible to select desirable plants from eventual recombinations if large segregating populations are used.
wheat; heritability; correlation; aluminum tolerance; agronomic characteristics
