GENETIC AND PHENOTYPIC CORRELATIONS IN PLANTS - A BOTANICAL TEST OF CHEVERUDS CONJECTURE

A survey of the agricultural and evolutionary literature was undertake n to determine the extent to which phenotypic correlations reflect the ir genetic counterparts in plants. More than 4000 phenotypic and genet ic correlations representing 27 different plant species and over 40 ye ars of research were analysed. In 74 per cent of the comparisons, the arrangement of elements of different magnitudes in genetic and phenoty pic correlation matrices was more similar than would be expected by ch ance alone. In addition, the overall magnitude of correlation was grea ter in genetic correlation matrices than in phenotypic correlation mat rices in 85 per cent of the comparisons. Several studies which reporte d correlations within and among distinct suites of traits provided the opportunity to evaluate correlations among functionally or developmen tally related characters. It was determined from these studies that tr aits belonging to the same suite of characters were more highly geneti cally and phenotypically correlated than traits from different suites.