Inheritance of resistance to rust in sugarcane

Abstract The inheritance of resistance to rust in sugarcane was studied in 13 F 1 and two S 1 families involving eight clones as parents. Results indicated marked transgressive segregation toward susceptibility in all F 1 and S 1 families studied. The skewed distribution of rust rating toward susceptibility in most of those families suggests that resistance to rust was partially dominant. Analysis of variance showed that the maternal component was much greater than the paternal component and a large amount of variance was due to non-additive genetic effect and common environment. Susceptible parents tended to transmit a higher frequency of rust-susceptible genes to their offspring.