فهرست مطالب حسین زینل زاده تبریزی

Aram is a new oilseed rape cultivar, extracted from the R308 (earlness line) and RGS003 (high-yield cultivar) cross population through pedigree method in three years. To reach high-yielding and compatible lines and cultivars, preliminary and advanced investigations were carried out in Gorgan and Sari (2014-2015) and Zabol, Gorgan, Sari and Borazjan (2016-2017). The line SRL-93-12 (Aram cultivar) with a yield of 2955 kgha-1 and 2774 kgha-1 was the first in the above-mentioned tests, respectively, and the SRL-93-12 line was also recognized as the most stable genotype based on the lowest Lins and Binns superiority index and highest seed yield. Extension research project results on farmers' farms in Behbahan, Moghan, and Gorgan regions showed that the new line with 594 kgha-1 higher yield than the check cultivar was in the first rank. According to the results as well as desirable agronomic traits such as good tolerance to dormancy and uniformity in maturity, this line was released with the name Aram.

Although sesame has traditionally been grown in southern Iran's warm and arid regions, its desirable agronomic traits and economic profitability have led to increased interest in cultivating this crop in the northern regions. However, sesame often exhibits low performance due to poor agronomic management, environmental stress, and limited use of improved varieties. Therefore, the use of improved sesame varieties, mainly those resistant to shattering, along with proper agronomic management, maybe the key to successful cultivation in various parts of the country. The seed of a non-dehiscent sesame genotype (S29) was imported into the country in 2016. Several years of studies related to this genotype confirm that it is resistant to seed shattering. In this regard, the present study was designed and conducted to investigate the effects of planting arrangement and plant density on the performance of a non-dehiscent sesame genotype. The experiment was conducted in research fields located in Mazandaran (Sari) and Ardabil (Moghan) in 2020 and 2021. The effects of three planting row distances (30 cm, 45 cm, and 60 cm) and four plant spacing on the rows (5 cm, 8 cm, 11 cm, and 14 cm), with a minimum density of 12 plants per square meter to a maximum density of 67 plants per square meter, were evaluated in terms of plant height, number of branches, yield components, seed yield and oil percentage of the shattering-resistant sesame genotype. The experiment was set up in a randomized complete block design with split-plot arrangements and three replications in each location. The results showed that the highest plant height in both regions was achieved with a row distance of 45 cm and a plant spacing of 8 cm. Additionally, increasing plant density up to 45 plants per square meter resulted in increased plant height, but further increase in density decreased plant height. Decreasing the distance between planting rows and plant spacing, equivalent to increasing planting density, reduced the number of branches, capsules per plant, and seeds per capsule in both regions. The maximum seed yield in the Moghan region (1465 kg/ha) was obtained from the 45×8 cm arrangement. However, there was no significant difference compared to the yield obtained from the 45×5 cm planting arrangement. In contrast, the highest seed yield in the Sari region (824 kg/ha) was achieved with the planting arrangement of 30×14 cm. Based on regression analysis of seed yield, the optimum density was estimated to be 23 plants per square meter for the Moghan region and 31 plants per square meter for the Sari region. The results indicated that the imported non-shattering sesame genotype did not exhibit desirable potential for cultivation in the Sari region due to its lower average yield than the regional average. However, in the Moghan region, this genotype showed a comparable average yield and even higher maximum yield (250 kg/ha) than the regional average, with the highest yield obtained from the 45×8 cm planting arrangement. Therefore, due to its suitable seed yield performance and the potential for mechanized harvesting, this genotype holds promise for cultivation in the Moghan region.

Oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) is a traditional oil crop in Iran. Conventional oilseed rape production during the past decades has been performed through manual sowing, transplanting, and harvesting. In cold and temperate regions of the Iran in the Karaj region, due to delays in harvesting the previous crop such as corn, canola planting date is delay and it is not possible to planting oilseed rape seeds directly. Problems such as supplying primary soil water for crop establishment of canola fields, possibility of damage from cold and frost stress and late season drought due to delayed planting are the main problems of canola cultivation in Karaj region (Jabbari et al., 2022). Because of this, canola transplanting can solve the problems and be a good choice in these kinds of situations (Zeinalzadeh-Tabrizi et al., 2022). Although there have been many seeding rate studies done for canola, the optimum seeding rate and plant population for canola is not known. Optimum density for canola depends on both biological and economic factors. verall economic optimum plant density for canola was 30 to 40 plants m-2 (French et al., 2016). On the other hand, the transplanting method (bare-root or potted-root transplant), transplanting density and the number of seedlings per hole one seedling or two seedlings are very important to achieve the highest seed yield.

In order to agronomic evaluation of winter canola in seeding and transplanting systems with different plant densities under delayed cultivation conditions in the Karaj region, an experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design with three replications in two cropping years, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. Experimental treatments included direct sowing of seeds as a control at a rate of 6 kg/ha; transplanting with densities of 20, 30, and 40 plants per square meter, each density with both bare-root transplant and potted-root transplant; and also with one seedling or two seedlings in the planting hole. During the experiment, traits including Days to flowering time, flowering duration, growth period, plant height, stem diameter, branch number, silique length and diameter, silique per plant, seed number per silique, 1000-seed weight and seed yield were recorded. Combined analysis of variance carried out by SAS statistical analysis software and the least significant difference (LSD) test was used to compare treatment means with a probability threshold of 0.05.

The results of combined analysis showed that seed yield in the treatments of potted-root and bare-root seedling was between 686 and 1142 kg.ha-1 more than seeding cultivation. Yield reduction in seeding cultivation was due to the reduction of yield components, especially the number of silique per plant. Also, among all the investigated treatments, the highest seed yield (4395 kg.ha-1) was observed in the treatment of bare-root seedlings with a density of 40 plants with one seedling in the hole, which this issue was related to the relatively long flowering duration, noticeable superiority for silique per plant and high 1000 seeds weight. An independent comparison of bare-root and potted-root transplant treatments showed that in the total of two experimental years, bare-root treatments caused a significant decrease of 7.3% in days to beginning of flowering and 13.3% increase in the length of the flowering period, 7.2% in plant height, 42.7% in siliques per plant and 17.1% in the seed yield. Early maturity and higher of siliques number and number of seeds in siliques led to the superiority of seed yield in the bare-root treatment compared to the potted-root treatment. Mentioned issue was related to more competition between seedlings in the pot at the the potted-root treatment and the greater use of soil space for root development and less competition between seedlings in bare-root treatment.

Generally, results showed that bare-root transplant treatments were superior to potted-root transplant treatments for yield components and seed yield. Therefore, in the conditions of delayed cultivation of canola, it is recommended to bare-root transplanting with a density of 40 plants per square meter and one seedling in the planting hole, especially in the Karaj region.

Determining the appropriate planting arrangement and plant density leads to better productivity of resources and increased yield per unit area. In this regard, an experiment was conducted in the Ardabil agricultural and natural resources research and education center (Moghan) during the 2021 crop year. This experiment uses a strip plot design based on randomized complete blocks with four replications. Its main factor is the effect of planting rows at a spacing of 30, 45, and 60 cm with planting spacing of 5, 8, 11, and 14 cm serving as the subfactor. According to the results, by increasing the distance between plants on the planting row, the maximum days to flowering initiation (47.25 days), growth period (122.25 days), stem diameter (8.33 mm), number of branches (2.97), and capsule length (24.20 mm) of sesame can be observed at a planting distance of 14 cm between the plants. Row spacing of 45 to 30 cm increases the number of capsules per plant, the number of seeds per capsule, and 1000-seed weight of sesame by 33%, 18.50%, and 16%, respectively. The highest seed yield, fresh and dry weight belong to 1455.40, 5021.80, and 1280.73 kg/ha, respectively, at 45 cm distance between planting rows. The results from this experiment show that planting arrangement with a distance between plants of 14 cm and a distance between planting rows of 45 cm, with optimal use of environmental resources is suitable for cultivation in Moghan plain and recommended for local farmers.

Canola is known as one of the most important oily plants in the world due to its good composition of fatty acids and oil content. As the first oilseed crop in Iran, Canola is recommended to increase its cultivated area to reduce dependence on oil imports with high oil quality compared to other similar crops. Drought stress is one of the major environmental limiting factors for the successful production of crops, especially canola, in Iran and the world. One effective strategy to reduce the adverse effects of drought stress is to use new nutritional techniques like humic compounds and growth stimuli, including amino acids. Due to the lack of sufficient studies on the effects of growth stimuli on canola, the present study was performed to study the effects of four plant growth biostimulants on increasing canola tolerance to drought stress under Moghan conditions.

To compare the effects of growth biostimuli on canola yield under drought stress, an experiment was conducted at Moghan Agricultural Research Station in the 2018-2019 crop years. The experiment was conducted as a split-plot in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Treatments included the main factor of irrigation regime at two levels, and the sub-plot included six treatments; control, amino acid foliar application, humic acid with irrigation, fulvic acid foliar application, seaweed extract foliar application, and the combination of second, third, and fifth treatments. In this study, plant height, number of pods per main stem, number of pods per lateral branches, total number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, 1000-seed weight and seed yield were measured. Before analysis of variance, the presence or absence of outliers was identified using Grubbs test. Normality of data was then checked by Shapiro-Wilk test. Finally, the analysis of variance was performed and the means were compared using the least significant difference (LSD) method at the statistical level of one and five percent using SAS software version 9.1.

The results showed that the effect of growth biostimulants could be different in non-stress and drought stress conditions, and biostimulants can reduce the effects of dry stress. in regular irrigation and non-stress conditions, the combined treatment uses of growth stimulants> humic acid> fulvic acid > seaweed extract> amino acid increased by 22.7%, 14.3%, 6.4%, 6.3%, and 3.4%, respectively, compared to the control treatment. In drought stress conditions, the highest effect was related to the combined use of growth stimulants> amino acids> seaweed extract> fulvic acid > humic acid, respectively, with an increase of 31.9%, 21.3%, 15.9%, 11.9%, and 11.1%, respectively, compared to the control treatment.

Under non-stress conditions, the effect of growth stimulants was related to all studied components yield, and the effect of humic acid, fulvic acid, seaweed extract, and amino acid were related to the number of pods. Under stress conditions, other yield components including, number of pods per main stem and lateral branches, plant height and number of seeds per pods had more effect on increasing yield. It can be concluded that the application of growth biostimulants while improving canola yield under normal moisture conditions, can increase its tolerance to drought stress.

A proper planting date in canola allows the crop to grow sufficiently and minimizes the damaging effects of stress. On the other hand, early autumn rains and the problem of timely farm preparation and unavailability of farm fields due to summer crops such as peanuts in the Moghan region cause delays in planting dates for autumn crops such as canola. Problems such as supplying primary soil water for crop establishment of canola fields, pest damage such as flea beetles in delayed cultivation, the possibility of damage from cold and frost stress, as well as the decline in yield due to canola exposure to drought and heat stress due to delayed planting are the main problems of canola cultivation in the Moghan region. Because of this, canola transplanting can solve the problems and be a good choice in these kinds of situations.

In order to agronomic evaluation of direct cultivation and transplantation of spring canola in different plant densities under delayed conditions in the Moghan region, an experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design with three replications in two cropping years, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. Experimental treatments included direct sowing of seeds as a control at a rate of 6 kg/ha; transplanting with densities of 20, 30, and 40 plants per square meter, each density with both bare-root transplant and potted-root transplant; and also with one seedling or two seedlings in the planting hole. During the experiment, traits including flowering initiation, flowering completion, flowering period, growth period, plant height, first pod height, stem diameter, branch number, pod length, pod thickness, pod number, seed number per pod, 1000-seed weight, and seed yield were recorded. Correlations among traits and path analysis were performed to investigate seed yield's direct and indirect effects.

The results showed that transplanting on average caused a significant decrease in phenological traits such as flowering initiation (145.5 GDD), flowering completion (207.8 GDD), growth period (158.9 GDD), and increased flowering period (156.6 GDD) during the experimental years. Also, transplanting caused a significant increase in stem diameter (2.8 mm), branch number (2.3), pod diameter (0.6 mm), number of pods per plant (158.2), number of seeds per pod (3.3), 1000-seed weight (0.69 g) and seed yield (1894.4 kg/ha). In control treatment as delayed direct sowing, seed yield in total experimental years showed a yield decline of 62.2% (1150.7 kg/ha) compared to transplanting cultivation treatments (3045.1 kg/ha). Comparing the bare-root transplant treatments, it was found that 40 plants per square meter had a higher number of pods per plant, 1000-seed weight, and seed yield than the 30 and 20 treatments and had a significant difference with them. Phenotypic correlation among agronomic traits showed seed yield had a negative and significant correlation with phenological traits: flowering initiation (-0.90**), flowering completion (-0.90**), and growth period (-0.77**) with a positive and non-significant effect on the flowering period (0.52). The results of stepwise regression analysis showed that the number of pods per plant (0.241*) and pod thickness (0.229*) had the most significant direct and positive effects on seed yield, respectively, while flowering completion (-0.559**) had the most negative and significant direct effect on seed yield.

Under delayed conditions, bare-root transplanting of canola with 40 plants per square meter density and one seedling in the planting hole was superior in terms of seed yield and phenological traits compared to potted-root transplanting and direct cultivation and is recommended in Moghan region.

In recent years, the cultivation of peanuts has increased in the Moghan region, which currently has an annual planting area of more than 6,000 hectares. This study was performed to select the most suitable planter with the desired planting pattern. The experimental design was carried out in a randomized complete block design with six treatments and four replications, in 2020. Treatments include a1 and a2, planting with a distance between rows (ridges) of 75 cm and between plants (12 and 17 cm), respectively, a3 and a4, twine planting with a distance between rows of 75 cm and between plants (22 and 28 cm), respectively, and a5 and a6 , planting was one row with a distance between rows of 50 cm and between plants (25 and 30 cm), respectively. Parameters measured were uniformity of seed depth, planter field capacity, seed germination, mechanical damage to seed, yield and yield components of peanut. The results indicated that planter type was significant at the 1% probability level for uniformity of seed lateral, planter field capacity and seed germination and at the 5% probability level for Number of pods per plant and peanut yield. However, there was no significant effect on 100-seed weight and mechanical damage to seeds. It was found that planting with a two-row pneumatic planter obtains the best results in terms of green percentage uniformity, seed cross distribution and yield. The highest uniformity of horizontal distribution and germination of seeds were 79.25% and 95%, respectively. The maximum yield in this tow row planter was 4995.30 kg.ha-1 with a distance between plants of 28cm. Therefore, compared to planting a row with a distance between the ridges of 75 cm, the average yield was increase 400 kg.ha-1.

In this work, the seasonal applied water and physical water productivity of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) were evaluated through monitoring 26 farmer fields (including 18, five, and three farmer fields with furrow, center-pivot, solid-set irrigation systems, respectively) over Moghan Plain, Ardabil Province, Iran, during the growing season 2019-2020. The rapeseed seasonal water use (irrigation + effective precipitation) and the grain yield value ranged from 2921-6762 m3 ha-1 and 1.00-3.70 ton ha-1, respectively (with a mean of 4798 m3 ha-1 and 2.64 ton ha-1, respectively). The net rapeseed water requirement during the growing season 2019-2020 and its 10-year mean value ranged from 285-399 mm and 282-354 mm, respectively (with a mean of 325 and 304 mm, respectively). The mean seasonal applied water at farmer fields with furrow irrigation (4328 m3 ha-1) was significantly (p < 0.01) higher compared to the farmer fields with center pivot and solid set sprinkler irrigation (2154 and 2633 m3 ha-1, respectively). Total water productivity (WPI+Pe) and irrigation water productivity (WPI) ranged from 0.28 to 0.95 kg m-3 and 0.41 to 1.45 kg m-3, respectively (with a mean of 0.58 and 0.77 kg m-3, respectively). Based on the results of multivariate linear regression analysis, the factors, including irrigation water salinity, sowing date, seeding rate, date of the first irrigation, growth period length, strong winds near harvest time, the latitude of farmer fields, flowrate of delivered water, mean irrigation interval, and rapeseed grain moisture content and impurity rate were recognized as the most important factors affecting the grain yield and the physical water productivity indices.

Analysis of genotype by environment interaction using different statistical methods is very important in plant breeding. In order to evaluate the seed yield stability of promising sesame lines using different parametric and non-parametric statistics, an experiment was conducted using 13 promising sesame lines with check variety Oltan at three locations of Karaj, Mashhad, and Moghan (Iran) in a randomized complete block design with four replications over two years (2016 and 2017). Combined analysis of variance for seed yield of promising sesame lines showed that the effect of genotype and the three-way interaction of genotype × year × location at the level of 0.01% probability were statistically significant. Karaj-96 environment with 1346 kg/ha and Mashhad-96 environment with 1001 kg/ha had the highest and lowest mean yield, respectively. The highest and lowest mean seed yield among genotypes in all test environments were related to G6 line with 1444 kg/ha and G12 line with 762 kg/ha, respectively. Heatmap along with cluster analysis divided both genotypes and stability parameters into three groups. Based on cluster analysis, genotype G12 was clustered into the first group, genotypes G1, G3, G7, G8, and G13 were clustered into the second group and the rest of the genotypes along with the check cultivar Oltan were clustered into the third group. The genotypes of the second group with the highest rank in most criteria of stability stasistics were stable compared to other genotypes and among them, the genotypes G8, G1 and G3 (with mean yields 1417, 1398 and 1291 Kg/ha, repectively) were selected and recommended in the test locations due to their average yield above the average yield of all genotypes.

Identification of genotypes adapted to a particular region is of special interest to breeders and plant geneticists. In order to identify adapted genotypes in sesame lines based on multi-trait selection, an experiment was conducted in a completely randomized block design with four replications at Moghan Agricultural Research Station of Ardabil Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center during the years 2017 and 2018. The genetic materials evaluated in this study were consisted of 14 superior lines from preliminary yield trails of the three different regions evaluated in 2016 (Derived from the management of segregated generations in a pedigree way) and Oltan cultivar as a check. Combined analysis of variance showed that the genotype and genotype × year interaction effects were significant for all of the studied traits. Biplot analysis of sesame genotypes showed that the first two components explained the 55.3% of the total variations of traits. Which-won-where/what polygon pattern based on different traits of sesame genotypes showed that G3 and G8 had the highest yield and yield components such as plant height, number of capsules per plant and oil content, respectively. Based on comparing of genotypes with ideal genotypes biplot, Shukla stability index, superiority index and heat map analysis, genotypes G3, G8 and G9 were better than Oltan cultivar, thus identified as the best genotypes. These genotypes have the potential to be used in research-extension trials for introduction as a new cultivar for cultivation in Moghan region.

In order to evaluate the yield, agronomic characteristics and response of sesame promising lines to wilting disease using multivariate methods, an experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications in 2019. The genetic plant materials evaluated in this study included the superior 20 selected lines along with Oltan as the control cultivar. During the growing season, different traits such as germination percentage, days to flowering, days to maturity, plant height, branching height, first capsule height, number of capsules per plant, capsule length, stem diameter, number of seeds per capsule, number of branches, leaf chlorophyll content, 1000-seed weight and seed yield per hectare were measured. The response of genotypes to fusarium wilt disease was also scored. The results showed that line 20 with 1604 kg/ha had the highest seed yield among the compared genotypes. Evaluation of lines showed that lines 1, 4, 19 and 20 were the most tolerant genotypes to fusarium wilt disease. The most positive and significant correlation was observed between seed yield and number of capsules per plant, leaf chlorophyll content, number of seeds per capsule, plant height, 1000-seed weight, capsule length and germination percentage, but with the number of days to flowering, days to maturity and first capsule height, it was negatively significant. The results of stepwise regression and path analysis of seed yield as a dependent variable and other agronomic traits as independent variables showed that the three traits including number of capsules per plant, number of seed per capsule and stem diameter had the most positive and significant direct effect on yield, respectively. The most indirect effect on seed yield was by the number of seeds per capsule through the number of capsules per plant. Cluster analysis grouped the genotypes into three distinct groups. The first group, including lines 1, 4, 13 and 20, were among the desirable genotypes in most agronomic traits and were well-distinguished from other genotypes by cluster analysis. In general, the results of this study showed that lines 20, 4 and 1 with the highest seed yield per hectare and superior in terms of important agronomic characteristics and tolerant to plant wilting disease, compared to the control cultivar Oltan, were recommended as promising lines in Moghan region.

This experiment was conducted in a factorial arrangement in a completely randomized design with three replications. 24 canola genotypes (13 varieties and 11 double haploid lines) at four levels of soil moisture including 80, 50, 30 and 20% field capacity (FC) were evaluated in pots in the greenhouse of seed and plant improvement Institute in Karaj during 2017. The growth of the shoot was more affected by different levels of soil moisture in comparison to the root growth that indicating a greater sensitivity of the stem length compared to the root length in response to the low water stress. Therefore, the root-shoot ratio can be an appropriate index for assessing the water stress tolerance. The results showed that cultivars such as Oase, Triangle, Tassilo and Savanah, had very high stability under stress conditions, but due to small amounts of the first and second components, they were classified as susceptible to water deficit stress. Also, SLM046 and Billy had the least stability in traits under water deficit stress at germination stage. Due to the non-separation of the three levels of soil moisture (80%, 50% and 30% FC), were not suitable for selection and only 20% FC was identified as the appropriate condition for selecting the ideal genotype. Therefore, between genotypes that were located in a 20% FC, based on the 'which-won-where' pattern, GKH 2005 was identified as the superior genotype.

The average yield of rapeseed in each country depends on climatic conditions, production methods and cultivar types. Proper planting dates provide adequate growth and development for crops and minimize the damage caused by stresses (Shirani-Rad et al., 2015). In the analysis of data collected from on-farm trials, environment can be defined as any management practices such as planting date, plant density, and fertilizer application that are recommended for crop producers (Balalić et al., 2012). Several methods have been proposed to analyze the genotype-by-environment interaction and to determine stable cultivars in different environments. However, each of these methods are based on certain statistical procedures and has their own advantages and disadvantages. In experiments, which are used to determine the interaction between genotype and environment, it is often difficult to establish the response patterns for the genotype-by-environment interaction without the aid of graphical representation of the data. The objective of this study was to use GGE Biplot graphical analysis and its efficiency to (1) determine the most suitable planting date for rapeseed 2) to determine the most stable genotype in the normal and delayed planting dates among the rapeseed cultivars and promising lines in the studied region.

The experiment was conducted over two cropping years (2014-2016) at the experimental farm of Hassan Abdali village, southwest of Zanjan, Iran (48°32'E, 36°37'N, altitude 1770 m). Each experimental plot consisted of four 6 m-long rows spaced 30 cm apart with 5 cm distance between plants on the rows. The experiment was arranged in split-plot based on a random complete block design with planting dates (D1: Oct. 7 as normal planting date, D2: Oct. 22 as semi-late planting date, D3: Nov. 6 as late planting date) in the main plots and genotypes G1 to G10 in the sub-plots with three replications. After eliminating the marginal effect, seed yield of each plot was estimated and finally seed yield/ha was determined. The outlier data detection and normality test of data were done before variance analysis using Grubbs’ test and Shapiro-Wilk test, respectively. Then the data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SAS software. GGE Biplot analysis was performed on the seed yield in order to determine the proper planting date and stable genotype among the cultivars and promising lines of rapeseed.

The results revealed that there were significant differences between genotype, planting date and their interaction (P<0.01). Seed yield of the investigated genotypes were declined from the highest yield of 4547 kg ha-1 in the first planting date (Oct. 7) to the lowest yield of 2118 kg ha-1 in the third planting date (Nov. 6). These results were similar with those of Singh et al. (2017) and Shirani-Rad et al. (2015). GGE Biplot analysis indicated that first two components explained 93 % of the total variation in seed yield in the three different planting dates. Based on which-won-where pattern, genotype G9 had the maximum seed yield (5437 kg ha-1) in the first planting date (Oct. 7) and genotype G7 had the maximum seed yield (2608 kg ha-1) in the second (Oct. 22) and the third (Nov. 6) planting dates. Based on vector view, the interaction of three different planting dates revealed that the first planting date (Oct. 7) with longer vector length and having more angle than the two subsequent planting dates had a greater effect on the genotypic distinction in terms of seed yield of the studied genotypes. On the other hand, the second and third planting dates had a smaller angle, indicating a positive and high correlation with each other.

Having an understanding of visual patterns is very important in analyzing agricultural data as compared to numerical results and numerous statistical tables. The GGE Biplot software, with a user-friendly graphical interface, can analyze various types of two-way data and provide a quick and complete understanding of the relationships between genotypes, environments, and their interactions. It can be concluded that GGE Biplot was a good method in identifying the suitable planting date and stable genotype in normal and late planting dates.

Selenium has a protective and positive effect on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the plants. In order to investigate the effect of selenium foliar application on leaf proline content and some quantitative and qualitative characteristics of rapeseed cultivars under end-season thermal stress, a factorial split plot experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications for two years (2014-2016) in Karaj, Iran. In this experiment, the first factor was planting date on October 15 (timed planting), October 25 (relatively late planting) and November 5 (delayed planting), the second factor was selenium in two levels, including non-application and application of 30 grams per liter of sodium selenate and third factor was genotype, including a commercial cultivar, two promising lines and three foreign commercial hybrids, so that the first and second factor were factorially in the main plots and the third factor was split plot as in sub plot. The results showed that quantitative and qualitative characteristics of rapeseed in this experiment were affected by planting date. Delay in planting reduced winter survival, biological yield, seed yield, crown diameter, relative water content of leaves of rapeseed genotypes. Furthermore, the delay in planting caused a significant increase in the crown water and leaf proline content in the rosette stage, but did not have a significant effect on the harvest index of the genotypes. Selenium foliar application improved the winter survival, biological yield, seed yield, crown diameter and relative water content of leaves of rapeseed genotypes. Selenium foliar application also significantly reduced leaf proline content in the rosette stage, which was an important factor in tolerance of genotypes to delayed planting and end-season thermal stress. In terms of winter survival, seed and biological yield, the L72 line showed the best response to these traits in timed planting, but in terms of delayed planting, Opera was better than the other genotypes, although there was no significant difference with the L72 line.

Compatibility and stability assessment of plant cultivars under various environments are of particular interests in crop breeding programs. In this study, stability of 17 spring oilseed rape promising lines was evaluated using GGE biplot analysis. The experiments were carried out in warm southern regions (four locations) of Iran in a randomized complete block design with three replications and in two growing seasons.  The results of GGE biplot analysis indicated G12 is the most stable genotype in two locations where the G14 is stable in other two locations. However, according to average tester coordinate criteria G12 is the most stable genotype across average test environment representing the highest yielding genotype among all investigated genotypes and environments. Based on the mean yield and Shukla Stability Index, as well as Superiority Index, G12, G14 and G18 genotypes are recommended for all warm regions of the country.

In this research, the application of new electrophoresis method of polyacrylamide gel using ethidium bromide staining for genetic variation of sunflower genotypes using TRAP novel marker has been proposed which has advantages such as low-cost, higher speed of analysis, analysis of a large number of samples per unit time (196×2) per experiment, as well as the reuse of gels in comparison with conventional methods of silver staining and fluorescent primer labeling. Six fixed and six arbitrary primers produced 19 TRAP markers so that from 116 bands, 109 of them were polymorphic. Mean number of polymorphic bands were 5.79. DNA fragments size were between 25-920 bp. Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) of this marker were between 0.03 and 0.50 (with the average of 0.33). Primer combination (MAX3BR and Sa12) with PIC value of 0.49 was the highest polymorphic locus. The results showed that this method could be very useful not only in detecting products of the microsatellite markers, but also in other markers, such as TRAP, which produces many polymorphic bands.

In order to investigate genetic diversity of sunflower genotypes, TRAP markers were used with six fixed and arbitrary primers. Nineteen primer combinations generated a total of 116 bands in which 109 of them were polymorphic. Restorer inbred lines with a mean of 22.76 polymorphic bands had the highest polymorphic loci (84.48 %), and Iranian hybrids with a mean of 2.97 polymorphic bands had the lowest polymorphic loci (40.52 %). Maximum and minimum genetic distances were between restorer lines and Iranian hybrids (0.151) and foreign hybrids and open pollinated cultivars (0.064), respectively. Maximum genetic similarity was between restorer and CMS lines (0.066). AMOVA analysis revealed that 87 % of total variance was within groups, and 13 % was between groups. Using UPGMA method of clustering and principal coordinate analysis, three distinctive groups were identified. Minimum similarity coefficient (0.472) was observed between R42 and CMS328 inbred lines. Results showed that TRAP marker was useful in genetic diversity estimation of sunflower genotypes. Higher similarity coefficient (0.755) for the studied genotypes indicated a narrow genetic base suggesting increasing genetic diversity of sunflower germplasm and selection of high diversity of new inbred lines in the future sunflower breeding programs.

To estimate genetic parameters in sunflower single cross hybrids، a North Carolina Design I experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications at Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Station of Khoy. In 2005، six fertility restorer male lines were crossed with 18 cytoplasmic male sterile female lines. Each male line was crossed with three different female lines to make two sets with nine hybrids in each set. In 2006، Single cross F1 hybrids were planted to estimate genetic parameters. Data were collected from agronomic traits including: flowering initiation، seed filling period، maturity، plant height، stem diameter، head diameter، 1000 seed weight، seed numbers per head، seed/achen ratio، biological yield، harvest index، oil content، seed yield and oil yield. Survey results showed that gene action in some loci for 1000 seed weight and seed numbers per head were partial dominant (a < 1)، for oil yield were complete dominant (a =1) and for other traits were over dominant (a > 1). To improve seed filling period and harvest index traits، use of selection methods is sufficient. Traits such as plant height، stem diameter and head diameter، hybridization method use to improve them is unavoidable. For important traits such as seed yield، oil yield and biological yield، using both selection and hybridization methods is recommended.