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Evaluation of Some Selection Indices to Improve Sunflower Seed Yield Under Normal and Drought Stress Conditions
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Nasrin Akbari  , Reza Darvishzadeh *  |
| Department of Production Engineering and Plant Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran , r.darvishzadeh@urmia.ac.ir |
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Abstract: (124 Views) |
Sunflower, one of the important oilseed plants, is affected by drought stress, consequently leading to yield decreases. Direct selection for improving seed yield, as the end result of multiple traits, is often ineffective due to the significant impact of environmental conditions. For many years, indirect selection through other traits or selection indices has been proposed to improve seed yield. In the present experiment, 100 oilseed sunflower genotypes were evaluated in terms of some agro-morphological traits using a simple 10 × 10 lattice design under normal and drought stress conditions during two consecutive croping seasons. In drought stress conditions, irrigation was done after 180 mm of evaporation from class A evaporation pan, compared to 90 mm in normal irrigation conditions. Brim, Smith-Hazel, Robinson and Pesek-Baker selection indices were calculated to select genotypes under two environmental conditions. In order to evaluate and compare the efficiency of selection indices and select the best index, the genetic gain of traits (∆G), expected gain (∆H) and relative efficiency of selection index (RE) were calculated. The results of this study showed that the direct response to selection for the traits including seed oil content, days to maturity and leaf length under both environmental conditions was more favorable compared to the correlated response. However, for head and stem diameter traits, the lowest efficiency of direct selection was observed under both environmental conditions compared to other investigated traits. Considering the two criteria; the genetic gain of traits (∆G) and expected gain (∆H) under normal and drought stress conditions, the two indexes of Brim and Smith-Hazel were introduced as the best index and the genotype ENSAT-254 was introduced as the superior genotype. The selected ENSAT-254 genotype can be considered in developing hybrid cultivars for cultivation under drought stress conditions, provided it is validated at the molecular level by analyzing the expression of genes related to water deficit stress tolerance. |
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| Keywords: Water deficit stress, Morphological traits, Direct selection, Oilseed crops |
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Type of Study: Research |
Subject:
Plant improvement
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