Assessment of genotype × environment interaction in oilseed sunflower genotypes under normal and limited irrigation conditions using GGE Biplot method

With expensing the amount of data, speed and accuracy in breeding evaluations are very important. The multivariate statistical methods, such as GGE Biplot that reduce the data volume and computational complexity, help in this direction. The use of GGE is useful for introducing genotypes with high stability and performance. Therefore, in order to introduce a stable genotype with high adaptation to drought stress, 100 oilseed sunflower genotypes were evaluated in a 10×10 simple lattice design under normal and limited irrigation conditions during two successive years (2013-2014). The results of composite variance analysis revealed a significant difference among genotypes in terms of the evaluated agromorphological traits. Based on graphical evaluation of genotype × environment interaction using GGE Biplot in metan program under R, genotypes 57 (SDR19), 41 (F1250/03), 8 (254-ENSAT), 24 (8ASB2) and 26 (H049+FSB) were introduced as the best genotypes in terms of stability and performance. The genotype 8 (254-ENSAT) had the highest performance among all genotypes in all environments. Meanwhile, genotypes 26 (H049+FSB) had the highest performance in Y1D (First year-limited irrigation) and Y1N (First year-normal irrigation) environments, and genotypes 57 (SDR19), 41 (F1250/03) and 24 (8ASB2) had the highest performance in Y2D (Second year -limited irrigation) and Y2N (Second year -normal irrigation) environments. Based on the results, genotype with code number of 8 with high and stable performance can be used in all environments as a parent in the development of high-yielding and stress-tolerant hybrids. The results show that GGE Biplot is a useful statistical method to achieve practical and accurate results.