Becausethegenotypesusedinthisstudywerenotnear-isogenic
(as were those of Flintham et al. [15]), it is not possible to directly
compare the effect of the semi-dwarfing gene with its tall nearisogenic line. However, it can be assumed that the population of
semi-dwarfgenotypesandthepopulationoftallgenotypesarereasonable representations of the unknown minor genes that affect
the known major genes. The approach of using population means
based upon known genes and averaged over minor genes also
allowsonetodeveloptheconceptofshortsemi-dwarf,semi-dwarf,
andtallsemi-dwarfclassesusingpopulationstatisticalapproaches.