Variability of performance and its structural elements in spring barley cultivars

Abstract

The aim and tasks of the study. Mutual influence of performance elements and the strength of this influence to predict the effectiveness of selections for performance in spring barley breeding were studied, and the least varying performance traits were identified.

Material and methods. The study was conducted in variety testing experiments with a plot area of 10 m² in 2015–2018. Thirty typical plants were harvested for structural analysis. The significance of differences was assessed by analysis of variance in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Six varieties selected out of 25 accessions, because they were the most highly productive and adapted, were taken as the test material.

Correlation analysis was performed, and the variation coefficients were computed, as BA Dospekhov described [22] using the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and STATISTICA 10 software; their significance levels were assessed with the STATISTICA 10 software.

Results and discussion. We found that in this sample of cultivars the spike length (V = 1.46–5.18%) was the least varying, depending on the growing conditions, and the grain weight per spike (V = 11.8–45.7%) and performance (V = 8.50–43.90%) were the most varying. There was only a close linear relationship between the performance and the grain number in the main spike; the productive tillering did not always determine the performance, as it depended on the weather conditions. In terms of variability degree, we established that in this sample of cultivars Avhur was the most plastic and responded to changes in the growing conditions, and Khors and Ahrarii showed stable performance.

Changes in the direction and strength of correlations between the performance elements depended on the growing conditions. Under the influence of specific conditions, the contributions of structural elements to the performance redistributed, that is, a compensatory effect was observed.

Conclusions. The expression variability of the performance elements and their correlations depended on the growing conditions; therefore, many years of research are needed to establish patterns. For this sample of high-yielding cultivars, the productive tillering is not always a determinant of the performance; selecting high-yielding accessions, one should focus on the grain number per spike. Cultivar Avhur can be recommended for breeding as a source of high performance, and cultivars Khors and Ahrarii - as sources of stable performance.