摘要
Although Brazil has reduced its importation of popcorn grain in recent years, the availability of improved varieties is still rare. In order to improve a popcorn population and to estimate the prediction of genetic gains, the third cycle of intrapopulation recurrent selection was carried out. One hundred ninety two half-sib families were obtained from the second cycle of the UNB-2U population and tested in a randomized complete block design with tworeplications within sets in two locations. The presence of statistical significance for sets for grain yield, poorly husked ear and broken plants proved the efficiency and the necessity for the use of the hierarchical statistical model by sets. Except for the poorly husked ear, there was significance for families within sets for the other evaluated traits, showing that there was sufficient geneticvariability for exploitation in future cycles. Although the heritability for popping expansion was higher than for grain yield, the predicted genetic gain for the latter was superior to poppingexpansion because of the higher magnitude of the genetic standard deviation for grain yield. It is expected that in the fifth recurrent cycle, the first popcorn variety with yellow grains may bereleased for Rio de Janeiro State. Embora o Brasil tenha reduzido a importa o de gr os de milho pipoca, a disponibilidade de variedade melhorada ainda 谷 rara no pa赤s. Com o objetivo de melhorar a popula o UNB-2U de milho pipoca e estimar apredi o de ganhos gen谷ticos, implementou-se o terceiro ciclo de sele o recorrente intrapopulacional. Cento e noventa e duas fam赤lias de meios-irm os foram obtidas e avaliadas em delineamento de blocos casualizados, com duas repeti es, dentro de ※sets§ em dois locais. A presen a de significancia para ※sets§, para produ o de gr os, espigas mal empalhadas e plantas quebradas, comprovou a efici那ncia do uso do modelo estat赤stico hierarquizado por ※sets§. Com exce o das espigas mal empalhadas, houve significancia para fam赤lias dentro de ※sets§ para as demais caracter赤sticas, revelando que h芍 suficientevariabilidade gen谷tica a ser explorada em ciclos futuros. Ainda que a herdabilidade para capacidade de expans o (PE) tenha sido superior 角 da produ o de gr os (GY), o ganho predito para GY foi superior a PE, em decorr那ncia da maior estimativa da magnitude do desvio-padr o gen谷tico para GY. Espera-se que, no quinto ciclo de sele o recorrente, seja poss赤vel a recomenda o da primeira variedade de milho pipoca com gr os amarelos para o Estado do Rio de Janeiro.