GENETIC EVALUATION OF HALF-SIB Eucalyptus urophylla PROGENIES BY THE REML/BLUP AND MINIMUM SQUARES PROCEDURE

<p>Five progeny tests with half-sibs <em>Eucalyptus urophylla</em> S. T. Blake were evaluated. Four 4 of them were from provenances Indonesia and one of them from Brazil. It was used the REML/ BLUP (restricted maximum likelihood / best linear unbiased prediction) procedures and the minimum square method for the estimation of genetic values. The tests were established separately according to the origin, in a complete randomized block design, with five replications and row plots of six plants in 3.0 x 2.0 meter spacing in Guanhães, Minas Gerais State. When the plants were 58 months-old for the characteristics of diameter at breast height (DAP), the five evaluated tests showed standard species values, besides presenting significant genetic variability by the F test at 1% of probability. The coefficients of additive genetic variation presented greater values in the TP-71 test from Wetar and TP-68 from Alor, and presented similar values in other tests for the diameter at breast height (DAP) characteristic. Selection gains were estimated at values of 12.8; 22.9; 9.5; 21.0 and 25.3%, and the effective population size (N_e) at values of 60.2; 58.0; 131.8; 167.9 and 224.1 for the TP-67, TP-68, TP-69, TP-70 and TP-71 tests, respectively. A selection gain of 26.8 % was obtained in the clonal seed orchard with selection of 21 plants that were carriers of the greatest additive genetic values. In both procedures, the values of the genetic parameters were similar, except among families, in which the REML procedure em obtained higher values with accuracy higher than 70% in all populations, proving to be appropriate for this purpose.