The genetic relationships between amylose content (AC) and appearance quality traits of indica rice (Oryza sativa L.) were investigated using conditional analysis and unconditional analysis in present experiment. The results from the unconditional analysis indicated that AC of rice positively correlated with brown rice (BR, i.e., dehulled but unmilled rice) length (BRL), width (BRW) and thickness (BRT), but was negatively correlated with the ratio of length to width (RLW). The conditional analysis showed that weight of brown rice (WBR) negatively affected the genetic relationships between AC and the appearance quality traits of rice except between AC and BRW, while the genetic relationships between AC and most appearance quality traits were negatively affected by protein content (PC). However, these influences were not apparent due to the impact of WBR or PC on the most covariance components of the different genetic systems between AC and the appearance quality traits. The conditional analysis showed that it was possible to improve AC while significantly reduce BRL and BRT under maintaining WBR. Furthermore, AC could be improved when BRL was reduced under maintaining PC, but BRW and BRT could be significantly increased.

Analysis of genetic main effects and genotype x environment (GE) interaction effects on the oil content of oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) was conducted by using a genetic model for the quantitative traits of seeds in diploid plants. The experiments were carried out over two years with 8 parents and a diallel mating design, which produced F1 and F2 generations. We found that the oil content of rape was simultaneously controlled by embryo genetic effect, cytoplasmic effects and maternal genetic effect as well as GE interaction effects, with the cytoplasmic and maternal effects playing the main role. The results indicate that selection of maternal plants for high oil content would be more efficient than selection based on single seeds. Since the GE interaction effects accounted for 73.69% of the total genetic effects and were more important than the genetic main effects it seems that selection might be influenced by environmental conditions. The estimate of narrow-sense heritability for oil content was 73.52% with the interaction heritability being larger than the general heritability, indicating that the early generations can be used for selection for high oil content. The prediction of genetic effects suggested that the parent cultivars Youcai 601 and Gaoyou 605 were better than the other cultivars for increasing oil content during the breeding of B. napus. The implications for the quantitative trait loci mapping of seed traits interfered by these three genetic systems is also discussed.