Research Article Feasibility of using tobacco hybrids of the Dark tobacco type

Abstract

The species Nicotiana tabacum, known as tobacco, is one of the crops with the highest economic value in the world among non-food species. Since 2000, Brazil has become the world‟s second largest tobacco producer. Brazilian production is mainly concentrated in the South region. The main tobacco types are produced in Brazil, such as Dark, which, despite representing a small percentage of the total production in Brazil, is economically important because of a high added value. Until now the only available cultivar is a line that despite having a desirable alkaloid content, has low productivity. In an effort to help improve production, we estimated the heterosis of diallel crosses involving tobacco lines of the Dark tobacco type. A complete diallel cross was made involving 10 lines from the British American Tobacco company breeding program. The 45 hybrid combinations, together with the 10 parental lines and nine other commercial controls, were evaluated at four sites in Southern Brazil, using a triple lattice experimental design (8 x 8). The characteristics evaluated included: green leaf mass (Productivity YLD), and total alkaloid content (ALK), and the selection index was obtained by the sum of standardized variables (SSV), considering a weight of 70% for YLD and 30% for ALK. Estimated correlation between YLD and