| dc.description.abstract | Limited data is available in the area of rose genetics making it difficult for rose breeders to efficiently develop improved rose cultivars. In order to improve efficiency of breeding programs, the patterns of genetic inheritance of important traits must be discovered through statistical genetic research. This genetic study focuses on valued traits including shrub growth type, flower color, flower form, flower diameter, the presence or absence of stem and petiole prickles, bloom habit, and proliferation in an interspecific diploid landscape population. Measurements and phenotypic observations were gathered by trait for each plant in the College Station, Texas, in the fall of 2012. Qualitative traits including bloom habit, flower color, flower form, and the presence of prickles were analyzed through chi square tests. Flower color, flower form, and stem prickles were inherited as supported in previous studies despite the overall observed deviation from the expected values common in interspecific rose crosses. The quantitative trait, flower diameter, was examined using mid-parent to progeny mean regression that showed a 59% additive heritability. These statistical tests were used to quantify the inheritance patterns of aesthetically important characteristics in roses that will greatly aid plant breeders in decreasing the time and guesswork involved in breeding and improving successive generations of roses. | en |
