Genotype x Environment Interaction and Phenotypic Stability Analysis for Grain Yield and several Quality Traits of Durum Wheat in the South-Eastern Anatolia Region

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to assess genotype x environment (GEI) interaction and to determine stability of 14 durum wheat (Triticum turgidum var. durum Desf.) cultivars for grain yield, test weight, thousand grain weight (TGW), vitreousness, protein content, ash content and SDS sedimentation volume. Cultivars tested in a randomized complete block design with four replications across 8 environments of South-Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey, were analyzed using four parametric stability measures (bi, S2di, R2 and a). A high GEI was determined for all traits. According to the stability analysis, ‘Balcali-2000’, ‘Firat-93’ and ‘Altintoprak-98’ were the most stable for grain yield. These cultivars had high mean grain yield and were non significant regression coefficient different from unity (bi = 1.0), coefficient of determination (Ri2) as high as possible. Although some cultivars were stable for one quality trait and unstable for another, the study of genotypic stability showed that ‘Balcali-2000’ cultivar had high stability for quality characteristics and determined to be the best within the pool of the studied cultivars. Furthermore, the estimated values of broad-sense heritability (H2) were found between 30.3% and 94.3%. H2 was low for vitreousness (30.3%) and ash contents (36.0%) while found high for thousand grain weight (94.3%), SDS volume (83.0%) and protein contents (75.2%). Grain yield (62.6%) and test weight (54.6%) were as moderate.