Genotype x environment interaction analysis in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

The results of genotype x environment interaction analysis revealed highly significant mean squares due to genotypes as well as environments for all the characters which indicated presence of substantial differences among the genotypes as well as environments for all the eleven characters. The environment linear (E-L) component was also significant for all the characters indicating that the six environments can be graded linearly for their differences in influencing the expression of characters of wheat genotypes. The mean squares due to genotype x environment interaction were also highly significant for all the characters except days to heading, plant height, effective tillers per plant and total number of tillers per plant to suggest important role of g x e interaction in expression of most of the characters in wheat. The linear component of g x e interaction was significant for all the characters which indicated good possibility of predicting linear responses of genotypes for all the characters under study. Thus, there would be ample possibility of discriminating the genotypes for above average, below average and average linear responses to predict their performances in changing environments under study. The significance of non-linear component (pooled deviation) of g x e interactions for all characters except ear length suggested that considerable number of genotypes may exhibit unpredictable and unstable mean performance for different characters across environments even defying their prediction on the basis of linear sensitivity coefficient.