doiSerbia

Genetic diversity of characteristics in barley cultivars

Saroei Elahe (Razi University, Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Kermanshah, Iran)
Cheghamirza Kianoosh (Razi University, Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Kermanshah, Iran)
Zarei Leila (Razi University, Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Kermanshah, Iran)

Knowledge of the genetic diversity is important to design appropriate selection criteria in the breeding programs. In this study, the genetic diversity of 42 Iranian and European barley cultivars was investigated with morpho-agronomic traits including phenological, physiological, morphological traits, grain yield and associated traits. Analysis of variance showed high variability among cultivars. The European cultivars Panaka, Aiace and Pariglia had the highest grain yield. The results of group comparisons indicated that the European cultivars produced higher grain yield (500.57 g/m2) than the Iranian cultivars (445.50 g/m2), but larger genetic diversity based on morpho-agronomic traits was observed among Iranian cultivars than European cultivars. Correlation analysis revealed the high significant correlations between grain yield with biological yield (0.92), straw yield (0.77), and number of spike per square meter (0.67). Based on the factor analysis, the six factors that justified 81.63 percent of the variations were identified. The first factor having the largest eigenvalue was identified as effective factor on the vegetative and reproductive growth. In path analysis, biological yield had the greatest effect on grain yield (0.906). Cluster analysis classified the cultivars in six groups and showed that genetic variation based on the all studied traits among the barley cultivars was not related to geographical location.

Keywords: Barley, genotype diversity, group comparisons, traits similarity