Diallel analysis of eight nutrient quality related characters in three ecotypes of Chinese cabbage.

A four-year experiment with advanced inbred lines of different ecotypes of Chinese cabbage revealed that the levels of Ca, Fe, K, dry matter and crude fiber in the cabbage head fit to additive dominant model, with the narrow-sense heritability being 4.7, 21.0, 41.8, 16.9 and 13.3%, respectively. The concentrations of Zn, ascorbic acid and amino acid fit to additive dominant model with maternal effects, their narrow-sense heritability accounted for 31.8, 58.4 and 59.2%, respectively. Zinc, potassium, ascorbic acid and amino acid possessed relatively high narrow-sense heritability, they can be selected in early generations; the other nutritional characters had low heritability and seriously suffered from environmental effects, so they suited to be selected in late generations. Calcium level was significantly correlated with Fe, Zn and amino acid, with the related coefficients being 0.362, 0.176 and 0.180, respectively. Moreover, the dry matter in the cabbage head has got a negative significant correlation with crude fiber (-0.207), but the ascorbic acid had a positive significant correlation with amino acid. The results can serve as an important basis for parent selection and combination pairing in quality breeding of Chinese cabbage.