Source Year: 2000

Rubber tree(Hevea brasiliensis) disease resistance to anthracnose panel canker (Colletotrichum gloeosporioides [Glomerella cingulata]), and growth and yield characters were assessed at 3-years-old in 18 half-sib progenies grown in the nursery at Pindorama Experiment Station. There were highly significant genetic differences among progenies for most characters. The genetic component of variance accounted for 3.37, 6.07, 12.74, 12.13, 19.82 and 3.58;of the phenotypic variance for anthracnose-infected area, anthracnose lesion stripe length, yield, girth, virgin bark thickness and total number of latex vessel rings, respectively. Narrow-sense heritability estimates for the above characters were 13.45, 24.30, 50.97, 48.52, 79.30 and 14.30;, respectively. No significant genetic correlations were found among anthracnose panel canker resistance, yield and growth characters. The frequency distribution of anthracnose-infected area and anthracnose lesion stripe length suggests polygenic control. Selecting the best 3 progenies out of the 18 studied would result in a genetic gain of 12.87 and 24.24;for infected area and lesion stripe length, respectively. The best 5 selected individuals out of 50 within each progeny would result in a genetic gain of 9.47 and 24.62;, with a total gain of 22.34 and 48.87;for these two characters, respectively.