Genetic Variability of Yield and Some Agronomical Traits of Promising Wheat Genotypes by R Project “Metan Package”

Abstract

Abstract Plant breeders have to employ strategies and techniques to produce new improved wheat cultivars to increase productivity to meet the needs of the growing population. Therefore, they have to develop a new cultivar for adaptation to a new environment and new management practices. One of the most important criteria plant breeders should focus on is the exploitation of genotype × environment interaction (GEI). Thus, this study aimed to assess the variability of 24 wheat genotypes growing in different seasons by using the R software “Metan Package”. Moreover, the study estimates the stability parameters and finally highlights the winning genotypes across seasons. Field experiments were conducted across three consecutive seasons specifically 2019/2020, 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 and at different locations. The assessment was done on traits such as plant height [cm], flag leaf area [cm2], chlorophyll index [SPAD], spike number [spike/m2], fertility ratio [%], grain number [grain/spike], grain weight [g], and yield [kg/ha]. Results indicated different performances of wheat genotypes in certain environments as well as across the three environments included in this study. Winner genotypes such as G-20, G-10, G-30, G-4, and IRAQ were selected according to their stability and high grain yield potential. It can be concluded that the use of the Multi-Environment Trail Analysis-METAN package is powerful for detecting promising wheat genotypes with high and stable yields across different environments and under various climate change conditions. Furthermore, it can be recommended that wheat performance needs to be assessed across very wide geographical locations.