Crossover Interactions for Grain Yield in Multienvironmental Trials of Winter Wheat

Abstract

ABSTRACTCrossover interactions (COIs) are changes in ranks among cultivars across environments. Breeders are concerned about COIs because their frequency affects how well rankings from one environment predict rankings in another environment. This research was undertaken to determine the frequency and distribution of COIs for grain yield within years in two regional trials of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The trials were in Nebraska and in the south‐central USA (SCUS). Each trial had four environments per year, and results from 1998, 1999, and 2000 were considered. Significance of COI for each pair of lines in each pair of environments within years was determined by a t test with an interaction‐wise Type 1 error rate. Grain yield varied significantly across environments in both trials in all years, and in the within‐year analyses the line × environment interaction was always highly significant. In the Nebraska trial, the frequency of COIs was less than expected by chance only in one pair of environments in 1 yr. Nonetheless, because estimates suggested the line × environment × year variance was substantially greater than the line × environment variance, this significant occurrence of COIs did not support breeding for local adaptation. In the SCUS trial, a lower frequency of COIs occurred than in the Nebraska trial. In both trials, frequency of COIs in a pair of environments was not closely related to the difference in mean yield between those environments, which raised the usefulness of categorizing environments as low‐stress or as high‐stress for the purpose of selection.