Study of grain yield stability of barley promising lines in warm regions using GGE biplot

The analyses of genotype × environment interaction in multi-environment yield trials are very important for evaluation, selection and recommendation of crop varieties. The purpose of this study was to identify high yielding and stable barley lines for introduction in different regions of warm climates of the Iran.

17 barley promising lines (with two checks Auxin and WB-94-3) will be evaluated in two years (2017 – 2019) using RCBD with three replications in five stations of warm zone including Ahvaz, Darab, Zabol, Gonbad and Moghan.

The results of variance analysis showed that the effects of location, genotype and genotype × location, genotype × year and genotype × year × location interactions were significant at the 0.01 probability level. The polygon-view of GGE biplot led to the identification of four superior lines (G18, G10, G19, and G17), six poor lines and three mega-environments. Among the test locations, Gonbad had a high discriminating ability to show differences between the genotypes and Moghan showed the least of discriminating; Also, Gonbad showed the highest amount of broad sense heritability of grain yield (0.780) and Moghan showed the lowest amount of broad sense heritability of grain yield (0.018).

Comparison of the studied lines with the ideal genotype showed that lines G18, G10, G19 and G17 were the closest lines to the ideal genotype with high yield and relative yield stability. Finally, these four lines were selected as the top lines for additional studies.