Adaptability, plasticity, and yield stability in hulless barley

Background. Hulless barley is of practical interest not only for plant breeders but also for crop producers. The nutritional value of its grain is higher and economic costs of post-harvest processing are less than those of hulled barley. Analyzing both plant adaptability and yield stability is a key factor in a comprehensive study of source materials for important agronomic traits.

Materials and methods. Sixty hulless barley accessions belonging to 15 intraspecific varieties served as the material for the study conducted in 2020–2022 in the fields of Moscow Province according to the guidelines of VIR and the methodology of field trial by B. A. Dospekhov. Adaptability and stability were assessed in the studied genotypes using various statistical indicators: CA, IS, b_i, S²dᵢ, θ_i , θ_(i), W_i² , σ_i² , CV, S⁽¹⁾, S⁽²⁾, S⁽³⁾, S⁽⁶⁾, NP^(1-4) , and KR.

Results and conclusion. High-yielding among the six-row accessions were Local (k-17948), (k-18071), N167 (k-11070) and ‘Omsky Golozerny 2’ (2539*) (245.0–308.8 g/m²), and among the two-row ones, Line-1289 (k-29336), C-99-2837 (k-30796) and ‘Omsky Golozerny 1’ (2538*) (177.9–269.5 g/m²). The grain weight per ear (r = 0.64) and grain weight per plant (r = 0.58) were found to have the closest relationship to yield. Significant correlations were found between 1000-grain weight and productive bushiness (r = 0.67), as well as between grain weight per ear and grain weight per plant (r = 0.70). High-yielding hulless accessions failed to demonstrate high stability across all growing seasons. Yield had strong correlations with CA, IS, and b_i (r = 0.85–0.93), so they can be used to select genotypes with a more balanced combination of yield and stability. Relatively high yields and stability were observed in the six-row genotypes Local (k-17948) and N167 (k-11070), as well as in the two-row cultivar ‘Omsky Golozerny 1’ (2538*).

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