Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
Pure line selection is a widely used breeding method in self-pollinated crops (including many annual flower crops) to isolate superior, homozygous genotypes from a heterogeneous mixed population.
A pure line consists of the progeny of a single, self-fertilized, homozygous individual.
The breeding procedure is structured over several generations to select superior phenotypes, evaluate their progeny, test their yield performance, and multiply the seeds of the best line.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
Let us arrange the steps of pure line selection in their correct chronological sequence:
Step 1: Selection of plants on the basis of their phenotype (A):
In the first year, individual plants are selected from a large, heterogeneous, self-pollinated mixed population based on their superior phenotypic characteristics (such as plant height, flower color, or disease resistance).
The seeds from each selected plant are harvested separately.
Growing individual plant progenies and rejection of undesirable progenies (D):
In the second year, the seeds of each selected plant are grown as individual row progenies.
progenies that show poor performance, segregation, or undesirable traits are rejected, and only the superior, uniform progenies are retained.
Step 2: Conducting preliminary yield trials and rejecting inferior progenies (B):
In the third year, the selected uniform progenies are grown in a preliminary yield trial along with a standard check variety to evaluate their yield performance.
Lines that perform poorly compared to the check are rejected.
Step 3: Conducting replicated yield trials in several locations and rejecting inferior progenies (E):
In the fourth to sixth years, the superior lines are tested in replicated yield trials at multiple locations across different agro-climatic zones to evaluate their yield stability and adaptability.
Step 5: Best progeny selection and its seed multiplication (C):
In the seventh year, the best-performing line is identified, named, released as a new cultivar, and its seeds are multiplied for commercial distribution to growers.
This sequence corresponds to (A), (D), (B), (E), (C), which matches option (C).
Step 3: Final Answer:
Therefore, the correct chronological sequence of steps is (C).