Principles of inheritance
Mendelian inheritance
Incomplete Dominance
Nuclear vs plastid inheritance
Nuclear vs plastid inheritance (contd)
Quantitative inheritance
Genotypic variation
Other forms of heritable variation
Quantitative variation and heritability
Novel sources of genetic variation
The practice of plant breeding
Breeding methods
Plant Breeders' rights
New technologies for plant breeding
Untitled Document

Quantitative inheritance

Most production traits are quantitative in nature. For example: How much does this variety yield? How many days does it take to flower? How much is its yield reduced by drought stress?

Quantitative traits tend to be controlled not by one gene, but by several or many, all acting together.

The result of the simultaneous action of many genes is a continuous (often normal) distribution. Most of breeding involves handling this sort of inheritance.