APPLICATION OF AUGMENTED DESIGNS FOR FIELD EVALUATION OF BREAD WHEAT DOUBLED HAPLOID LINES: A PRELIMINARY REPORT

Abstract

Doubled-haploid is an effective method to produce 100% homozygous lines in asingle generation accelerating the release of new varieties and reducing thecorresponding expenses. However, the existing problem in cases where theadequate quantity of seeds is limited is the inability to evaluate new germplasm inreplicated experiments. In his attempt to confront this problem, Petersen proposedin 1985 the evaluation of new germplasm to be based on its division in blocks andselection to be performed regarding the yield of the randomly repeated control ineach block. The aim of the present study was to use the aforementioned method toevaluate preliminary 37 doubled-haploid lines (DHL). The parental varieties of theDHLs,Greek cultivars “Acheloos” and “Vergina”, were used as controls. For thepurpose of the study, 35 main spikes, one form each DHL and control, were used.The length of the spikes was measured, the number of spikelets was counted, andthe 1000 kernel weight and total yield were recorded. The data analysis revealedthat only one line exceeded the mean number of spikelets of the controls, oneexceeded the mean yield of the controls and two exceeded the mean 1000 kernelweight of the controls (one was even better than the best control). The reportedresults indicate the presence of valuable genetic variability among the DHL aftercrossing cultivars “Acheloos” x “Vergina”. Further research is needed, after DHLsmultiplication, using more plants and locations to draw more reliable conclusions.