Quantitative characters include:
Quantitative inheritance produces continuous distribution influenced by multiple loci and environment. Traits such as total biomass, grain yield, tiller number, seed number per inflorescence, and harvest index depend on additive effects of polygenes controlling photosynthesis, assimilate partitioning, and reproductive efficiency. Somaclonal variation that perturbs phytohormone homeostasis or minor regulatory genes often generates incremental shifts rather than novel discrete phenotypes. Evaluation requires replicated randomized blocks, measurement with balances and counters, and statistical an
Ref: Hartl & Jones Genetics 8th ed quantitative inheritance; NCBI NBK115538 polygenic traits; Nicholl Genetic Engineering Ch 6 yield; Poehlman Ch 3 biomass.
