Evaluation of soft spring wheat varieties by selection indices

Abstract

The aim and tasks of the study included to evaluate and identify soft spring wheat varieties by selection indices.

Material and methods. The researches were conducted during 2014-2015 under conditions of research field of the V.M. Remeslo Myronivka Institute of Wheat of NAAS of Ukraine at the laboratory of spring wheat breeding. 33 varieties of soft spring wheat were evaluated by selection indices: Finn-Scandinavian (FSI) and Mexican (MI) index, index of perceptiveness (IP), linear ear density (LED) and ear density(ED).

Results and discussions. Evaluation of soft spring wheat varieties by selective indices allows increasing the efficiency of selections using additional information about the secondary marker traits. Middle straw varieties had the optimal balance between elements of productivity and stem length and were characterized the highest values of the indices. It is important in breeding to use indices including traits that reliably correlate with indicators of crop capacity. FSI (r = 0.77±0.06) and LED (r = 0.74±0.06) were revealed to be the most effective indices in our work, as they were characterized with strong correlation with crop capacity. The rest indices we studied: IP (r = 0.66±0.07), ED (r = 0.52±0.07), MI (r = 0.51±0.07) had middle and moderate correlation with crop capacity, since they were also important. That shows in their favour as informative indicators being suitable to use in breeding practice.

Conclusions. Soft spring wheat varieties were identified by complex of selection indices: Venera, Struna myronivs`ka, Aranka, Alliance, Etiud, Krasa Polissia, Simkoda myronivs`ka, Katiusha (UKR), PHRSV-03 (USA), Leguan (CZE), Jasna, Koksa (POL). They are recommended as a sourse material in breeding process for productivity. Correlations between crop capacity and selective indices were analyzed and it was established that the strength of connection between them was various and ranged from moderate to strong.