Tree breeding has focused on increasing stem volume growth with a cost to fecundity. However, fecundity is important in maintaining the fitness in natural stands and facilitating cross‐pollination to advance breeding populations. Understanding the inheritance of fecundity and the genetic relationship between fecundity and growth is essential to understand the constraints of evolution in natural population and design an optimal selection strategy to balance breeding for growth and fecundity. Inheritance of female fecundity and the genetic relationship between fecundity and growth in radiata pine were investigated using a large Australia‐wide progeny test, planted on eight sites involving 279 control‐pollinated families. It was found that fecundity of female cones was highly heritable with an estimated heritability of 0.39–0.61, but genetically correlated with growth (−0.30 to −0.39). This indicates that improvement in tree growth alone could reduce the fecundity, thus to break the possible evolutionary constraint in natural population. To maintain fecundity for breeding purposes and minimize the interruption of the evolutionary constraint between fecundity and growth, use of a restraint selection index to impose no change of fecundity is developed in current breeding, while dissecting the genetic basis of adversely correlated traits at loci level is required for optimal long‐term strategy.

中文翻译：

---

辐射松（Pinus radiata D. Don）育种计划中平衡生长和繁殖力的育种

树木育种的重点是增加茎的生长，但要付出一定的代价。但是，繁殖力对于维持自然林中的适应力和促进异花授粉以促进繁殖种群很重要。了解生殖力的遗传以及生殖力与生长之间的遗传关系对于理解自然种群进化的约束以及设计最佳的育种平衡生长和生殖力的选择策略至关重要。辐射松的雌性繁殖力和繁殖力与生长之间的遗传关系，是通过在澳大利亚范围内进行的大型后代试验研究的，该试验种植在涉及279个受控制授粉家庭的八个地点。研究发现，雌性锥虫的繁殖力很高，遗传力估计为0.39–0.61，但在遗传上与生长相关（-0.30至-0.39）。这表明仅通过树木生长的改善就可以降低繁殖力，从而打破自然种群中可能的进化限制。为了维持繁殖力，并将繁殖力和生长之间的进化限制最小化，在当前的育种中使用限制选择指数不改变繁殖力，同时在基因座水平上分析了反向相关性状的遗传基础。最佳长期战略所必需。