Phenotypic Analysis of Agronomic Traits in Bread Wheat

Components of yield and seed quality are traits of primary importance in bread wheat breeding programs. Yield components are obviously a major determinant of farmer’s income, whereas seed quality is very important for breeding quality. In this paper, the thousand grain weight (TGW) was chosen as indicative of yield features and the shelling percentage (RND) as indicative of seed quality (although RND is not directly connected to the technological/seed quality, but rather indirectly and it greatly contributes to the wider picture of seed quality). The objectives of the present research were two-fold: to determine the influence of genotype, the environment and their interaction on the thousand grain weight and shelling percentage and to evaluate the stability via the AMMI model. The grain samples were obtained from ten winter wheat cultivars grown in 2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12 at three locations in Serbia: Novi Sad, Sremska Mitrovica and Pančevo. The ten winter wheat cultivars used in this study were: Evropa 90, NSR-5, Pobeda, Renesansa, Ljiljana, Cipovka, Dragana, Simonida, NS 40 S and Zvezdana. The thousand grain weight and shelling percentage were investigated and statistically analyzed via the AMMI model, which showed significant differences between genotypes at various locations and ASV rankings. The most favorable cultivar in the experiment was Dragana in terms of all investigated traits.