USING THE F3 GENERATION FOR PREDICTING THE BREEDING POTENTIAL OF SOYBEAN CROSSES

The prediction of the genetic potential of crosses for generating inbr ed lines scoring either above or below given standards can be obtained from the F-3 means and the variances among the F-3 families. The meth odology was tested for two soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) traits: a) plant height at maturity, of moderate to high heritability and b) gra in yield, of low heritability. The predictions were helpful for screen ing among crosses regardless of the inheritance of the trait in the ab sence of genotype x environmental (g x e) effects. In the presence of g x e, the use of two standards and of data from two environments imp roved the yield predictions.