Genetic Analysis of Early Field Growth of Loblolly Pine Clones and Seedlings from the Same Full-Sib Families

The Forest Biology Research Cooperative recently established a series of loblolly pine clonal trials known as CCLONES (Comparing Clonal Lines on Experimental Sites). There are three primary levels of genetic structure in this study (parental, full-sib family, clone) that strengthen the power of CCLONES for examining genetic mechanisms and interactions with cultural treatments and locations. A fourth level of genetic structure can be added by considering the provenance of the parents. This report includes some preliminary results from the genetic analyses of 2 year growth traits that were recently measured at the CCLONES loblolly pine trials. The specific objectives of this report are 1) to determine heritability estimates for various growth traits for loblolly pine clones and seedlings, 2) to compare the genetic correlations between parents and families when grown as cuttings versus seedlings, and 3) to determine the genotype x environment interaction by looking at the genetic correlations for parents, families, and clones for paired trials.