Abstract:

Male and female parents effects, additive effect and dominant effect of growth traits and wood basic density were investigated in a progeny test forest of 12-year-old Pinus massoniana with nested mating design in Chun'an county of Zhejiang. The results showed that, except for stem straightness, there existed significant differences in growth rate and wood quality among the crossing combinations, male and female/male parents. Male and female parent effects all worked on DBH, height, individual volume and stem fullness simultaneously, but there was little difference between the parents' effect. For wood basic density, female parent effect was 1.56 times as large as male parents. DBH and wood basic density of P. massoniana were primarily controlled by additive effect, and then dominant effect, but height, individual volume and stem fullness were almost completely controlled by additive effect, and progeny performance could be predicted by the parents' performance. The comparative analysis showed that there was little correlation between growth and wood basic density in different crossing combinations and male parent clones. The fast-growing male parents and crossing combinations did not always had low wood basic density. The correlation between growth performance of crossing combinations and GCA of male parents was not obvious, but the probability to get superior crossing combinations would be raised through selecting male parents with high GCA to hybridize. Ten superior crossing combinations and 17 and 13 superior individuals respectively for pulp wood and saw timber were selected based on wood dry matter and DBH.

Key words: Pinus massoniana, nested mating design, growth, wood basic density, genetic analysis