Stability of productivity elements in spring barley varieties under ecological testing

Abstract

Purpose. To assess the adaptive capacity of spring barley varieties by productivity components and to identify the most valuable for breeding samples using ecological variety trials.

Material. The source material for the studies was 17 spring barley varieties bred by the Plant Production Institute nd. a V. Ya. Yuryev of NAAS. The ecological variety trials were carried out in three locations with different soil and climatic conditions - at the Plant Production Institute nd. a V. Ya. Yuryev of NAAS (the Eastern part of the Forest-Steppe), Donetsk Research Station of NAAS (the Northern Steppe) and the Research Station of Bast Crops of the Institute Agriculture North-East of NAAS (the North-Eastern Steppe). To estimate the environmental parameters and adaptive capacity and stability of genotypes the method by A. V. Kilchevskiy and L. V. Khotyleva was used. The ecological plasticity coefficient b1 was calculated according to the method by S. A. Eberhart and W. A. Russel.

Results. Peculiarities of the influence of factors and their interactions on the formation of separate productivity elements were determined by the analysis-of-variance method; concurrently strong significant differences between the effects of genotypes, environments, and their interactions were confirmed. The peculiarities of variety trial locations as backgrounds for assessing variety genotypes were defined. Thus, the destabilization effects for all the traits studied (productive tillering potential, the number of grains per ear, 1000-grain weight) were more evident under the conditions of the Research Station of Bast Crops of the Institute Agriculture North-East of NAAS and the compensation effects – under the conditions of the Plant Production Institute nd. a V. Ya. Yuryev of NAAS. The varieties with high overall adaptive capacity (OAC) characterizing the genotypes by their ability to provide the best manifestation of the trait in the totality of environmental conditions are of practical value for breeding; by the productive tillering potential these were the varieties Kosar (OAC 0.4 ), Agrariy (0.4), Kozvan (0.8); by the number of grains per ear - Agrariy (1.8), Kosar (1.9), Dyvoglyad (1.2), Schedryy (1.1), Modern (1.0); by 1000-grain weight - Vektor (4.2), Perl (3.2), Zdobutok (2.2), Schedryy (2.0). The degree of genotype stability was evaluated by the effect of specific adaptive capacity (SAC). The studies identified varieties with high overall adaptive capacity (OAC) and specific adaptive capacity (SAC) by each productivity element: by the productive tillering potential – the variety Kozvan, by the number of grains per ear – the awnless varieties Kosar and Dyvoglyad, by 1000-grain weight – the varieties Zdobutok and Schedryy..

Conclusions. The studies have confirmed the possibility of combining high productivity and high or medium stability in one genotype.