Preliminary Evaluation of Imported Cultivars and Pure Lines of Soybean(Glycine Max L.). Based on Agronomic Traits and Resistance to Phytophthota Rot

In order to preliminary evaluation based on important agronomic traits, 54 soybean pure lines and cultivars were assessed according to augmented design with three control cultivars including Williams, Kosar and Sahar at Seed and Plant Improvement Institute at Karaj in 1395. During the growth period, important agricultural characters such as plant height, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, number of branches per plant and dates of emergence, flowering, podding, maturity and harvesting were recorded. The grain yield, 100 seed weight and seed oil percentage were determined after harvest. Based on the results of coefficient of variation (%) of imported genotypes in Karaj region, the highest amount of phenotypic variation was related to the number of empty pods (99.08), number of pods in ranches (83.12), number of seeds per plant (72.73) and number of pods per plant (66.68) and the lowest phenotypic variation coefficient related to oil percentage (11.77), number of days to maturity (14.94) and number of days until grain filling (18.9). The studied genotypes were classified into four groups based on cluster analysis for all agronomic traits. In addition, the investigation of pure lines and cultivars of imported soybean in terms of response to Phytophthora disease showed that among the 54 genotypes, 22 genotypes had a semi-resistant and resistant reaction. The results of clustering on the basis of resistance to Phytophthora rot divided cultivars in two main groups and four subgroups. In total, it should be suggested that cultivars of Winchester, Beeson 80, Amcor 89, Beeson, L75-3735, L77-1794, Oak land showed high single-plant seed yield and resistance to Phytophthora which could be used in future breeding programs.