Implications of additive × additive epistasis for common bean breeding

The presence of epistasis in complex traits can be significant and affect the selection of segregating populations undesirably. The purpose of this study was to determine the epistatic genetic components that influence root and shoot traits of common bean and identify their effect on the performance of segregating populations. The field experiment consisted of 49 treatments (backcross progenies, parents and segregating populations in the F2 and F3 generations). The cross P1-BAF53 (Andean) × P2-IPR 88 Uirapuru (Mesoamerican) as reference. Six traits were taken into consideration: root distribution (