Breeding value and efficiency of use of awny and awnless barley cultivars in breeding

Abstract

The study objective was to identify cultivars - sources of valuable features, to assess the efficiency of creation of valuable hybrid combinations on their basis and of generation of valuable awnless and awny lines to use them in spring barley breeding.

Material and methods. The study was conducted in 2014–2017. Spring barley cultivars and their parents were taken as starting material for the study. Awnless cultivars: Modern, Granal and Vitrazh; awny cultivars – Zvershennia, Granal, Etyket, Dzherelo, Vzirets, Badioryi, Maliovnychyi, Pasadena and Tolar. Fifty plants of each cultivar in the 1^st- and 2^nd-year nurseries were analyzed for the plant performance, its structural components and other quantitative characteristics. Plants of each cultivar in the control nursery were also analyzed for economically valuable features:the yield, growing season length, lodging resistance, resistance to covered smut. Data were statistically processed in Excel using analysis of variance described by BA Dospekhov.

Results and discussion. The 2014–2016 study singled out cultivars - sources of a set of valuable forbreeding traits on the basis of significantly high values of quantitative characteristics. A set of several valuable features was found in cultivars - sources of high values, which were significantly better than those in the national standard Vzireth: of awnless cultivars Vitrazh was distinguished by 4 features, Modern – by 3 features and Granal– by 2 features; of awny cultivars Dzherelo was distinguished by 4 features, Badioryi, Etyket and Zvershennia – by 2 features. High grain yields were given by Zvershennia, Etyket and Dzherelo; lodging resistance was recorded in Zvershennia, Pasadena and Tolar; resistance to covered smut was noted for Modern, Vitrazh, Granal and Pasadena. 113 lines were assessed, of them 44 best lines derived from crossing the awnless and awny cultivars under investigation and their parents were selected by phenotype. Analysis of variance of 44 lines singled out 10 awnlessand 11 awny lines, which have high values of individual features and are valuable for studying at subsequent stages of spring barley breeding.

Conclusions. Cultivars that had been involved in crossing and generated the greatest numbers of valuable lines were identified: Dzherelo, Zvershennia, Etyket, Maliovnychyi, Tolar and Pasadena. Of all the cultivars studied, they are the most valuable starting material for spring barley breeding. Valuable lines were created for studying in the breeding proces