Testers and Combining Ability

Abstract

The inbred–hybrid concept was created in the public sector with the direct influence of Darwin, Festetics, Mendel, and Vilmorin. East related those biological principles to the more practical plant improvement studies to achieve his goals (Hayes, 1956). The progeny test was defined by Allard (1960) as ‘a test of the value of a genotype based on the performance of its offspring produced in some definite system of mating.’ It was used as early as 1850 by Vilmorin in France, and it proved to be a highly effective procedure for the improvement of sugar content of sugar beets (Beta vulgaris). This method of line selection with progeny testing was known as the ‘Vilmorin method’ or ‘Vilmorin isolation principle’ and was introduced in several plant breeding programs in the latter part of the 19th century. The progeny test in maize was first used in 1896 by Hopkins, starting the well-known program for half-sib recurrent selection of maize oil and protein content (e.g., the ear-to-row half-sib selection procedure).