The continued success of any conventional sweet potato breeding program is limited by knowledge of the inheritance of the traits under study, such as flesh color and tuberous root shape, because of the difficulty of segregating color frequencies by visual separation. The objective of this study was to understand the mode of inheritance of these genetic traits. The cross blocks were established at the Research Institute of Tropical Roots and Tuber Crops (INIVIT-Cuba). Eight parental genotypes of known compatibility were selected, with contrasting phenotypic characteristics to develop segregating populations. To express color objectively, the CIE L*a*b* color space was used (L*: lightness; a* and b*: chromatic coordinates), and four morphometric variables related to the shape and dimensions of the tuberous root were evaluated. From 2419 reciprocal crosses, 2045 botanical seeds and 1764 seedlings were obtained. Incomplete dominance of the white and purple flesh colors over the orange color was observed, as well as transgressive segregation for purple, orange, and white flesh colors and for the shape of the tuberous root. The results allowed us to propose a genetic model of biparental crosses for the improvement of the flesh color of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam.), as well as a predictive formula of the progeny to be selected.

The continued success of any conventional sweet potato breeding program is limited to knowledge of the inheritance of the traits studied, such as flesh color and tuberous root shape, because it is difficult to fractionate color frequencies by visual separation. The objective was to understand the mode of inheritance of these genetic traits. The crossing blocks were established at the Research Institute of Tropical Roots and Tuber Crops (INIVIT-Cuba). Eight parental genotypes of known compatibility were selected, with contrasting phenotypic characteristics to develop seg-regating populations. To express color objectively, the CIE L*a*b* color space was used (L*: lumi-nosity; a* and b*: chromatic coordinates), in addition, four morphometric variables associated with the shape and dimensions of the tuberous roots were evaluated. From 2419 reciprocal cross-es, 2045 botanical seeds and 1764 seedlings were obtained. Incomplete dominance of the white and purple flesh colors over the orange color was observed, as well as transgressive segregation for purple, orange and white flesh colours, and for the shape of the tuberous roots. The results al-lowed to propose a genetic model of biparental crosses to improve the flesh color of I. batatas, as well as a predictive formula of the progenies to be selected.