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U.S. Department of Agriculture USDA Forest Service Southern Regional Extension Forestry Southern Regional Extension Forestry

Growth and Isozyme Allele Frequency Correlations in Black Walnut

Average height and diameter of black walnut trees in two progeny test plantations in southern Illinois were measured at age 19. Seed from fast and slow growing families were collected in 1989. Isozymes extraction and analysis was applied to embryos removed from these nuts. When we correlated mother tree growth measurements with progeny isozyme allele frequencies by locus, none of the correlations were significant at the 5% level. However, we found a significant positive correlation at the 10% level between tree height and the frequency of a PGI2 allele. Using canonical correlation analysis, the results were more encouraging. The first canonical correlation was greater than 0.99 and the second one was 0.72. Diameter growth had a higher correlation with allele frequencies than height growth. Canonical correlation may be more practical than simple correlation analysis for studying relationships between isozyme allele frequencies and growth variables because of the polygenic inheritance pattern of growth traits.


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Author(s): Fan H. Kung, George Rink, Gang Zhang

Publication: Tree Improvement and Genetics - Southern Forest Tree Improvement Conference - 1991

Section: General Session: Genetic Testing and Selection