Combining ability of potato parents for tuber appearance and tuber yield component traits

The purpose of this study was to estimate the combining ability between two groups of potato parents in early generations of selection. Twelve potato families, derived from two groups of parents crossed in a 4x3 partial diallel design, were evaluated, in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Additive effects of genes were predominant for the traits tuber shape uniformity, tuber pointiness, tuber curvature, general tuber appearance, tuber size uniformity, tuber number, total tuber yield, and average tuber weight. With regard to general combining ability, for all tuber appearance traits, the foreign parents 'Pukara' and 'Asterix', and the national parent 'Eliza' contributed with complementary favorable alleles. For tuber yield component traits, the foreign parent 'Rioja' and the national parent 'Eliza' were outstanding. The specific combining ability indicated 'Pukara'/'Eliza' as the most promising cross for the development of superior genotypes for the traits general tuber appearance and tuber number.