ASSESSMENT OF SIX QUINOA (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) GENOTYPES FOR SEED YIELD AND ITS ATTRIBUTES UNDER TOSHKA CONDITIONS

Abstract

The present work was conducted at Toshka Station, Desert Research Center, Aswan, Egypt to assess mean performance and genetic behavior of 6 quinoa genotypes (AMES22157, Q 31, AMES13761, NSL106398, Q12 and Q27) under heat stress conditions during the two growing seasons (2015/2016 and 2016/2017). The experimental design used was a randomized complete block design with three replicates. Results showed a significant differences among quinoa genotypes for all studied characters in both growing seasons. Genotypes AMES22157, Q12 and Q27 gave the highest number of secondary branches/plant, number of inflorescences/plant, seed weight/plant and biological weight/ plant indicating their importance as promising genotypes in quinoa breeding programs. The high values of heritability coupled with high values of genetic advance were recorded by plant height, number of primary branches/plant, number of secondary branches/plant, seed weight/plant and biological weight/plant. Positive and highest significant correlation were observed between seed yield and each of plant height, number of primary branches/plant, number of secondary branches/plant, and number of inflorescences/plant. Results of path analysis confirmed the importance of previous characters. The cluster analysis classified the tested genotypes into two sub class groups (clusters) where the first cluster aggregated the genotypes (AMES22157, Q12 and Q27) that had the highest mean values of all studied characters except harvest index. The obtained results by GT biplot graphs were coincided with those obtained by correlation matrix and cluster analysis indicating that GT biplot graph is considered a successful and effective technique beside these analyses.