Multivariate analysis of combining ability for soybean resistance to Cercospora sojina Hara

Seven soybean cultivars (Bossier, Cristalina, Davis, Kent, Lincoln, Paraná and Uberaba), with different levels of resistance to Cercospora sojina, race 04, were crossed according to a diallel design, with no reciprocals, to determine the general and the specific combining abilities for the resistance. The evaluations of the reaction to the disease were performed 20 days after the inoculation of the fungus on the most infected leaflet of the plant, in the parents and in the F1 hybrids. To quantify the resistance, the following characteristics were evaluated: infection degree (ID); number of lesions per leaflet (NLL); lesion mean diameter (LMD); lesioned leaf area (LLA); percentage of lesioned leaf area (PLLA); number of lesions per square centimeter (NLC) and disease index (DI). The relative importance of each characteristic was evaluated by the canonical variables analysis and the LLA and NLL characteristics were eliminated from the multivariate function. With the remaining five characteristics, a multivariate index was created using the first canonical vector, which was submitted to the diallel analysis, according to Griffings fixed model, method 2. The most important characters to discriminate resistant from susceptible soybean plants to C. sojina were: ID, LMD, NLC, DI and PLLA. Cristalina, Davis and Uberaba cultivars are the best ones among those tested that can be recommended as parents in soybean breeding programs seeking resistance to Cercospora sojina. The additive, dominant and epistatic genetic effects were important for the expression of the resistance, although the additive genetic effect was the most important component