Distinctness determination of DUS test on some quantitative characteristics of rice

Abstract

When separately using the DUS Test Guideline to determine the distinctness of some quantitative characteristics, we found even the characteristics of the same variety had different "Notes" in different environments. So, the correlation of quantitative characteristics with environment factor, with variety factor, and characteristics themselves were discussed in this paper. Results showed that, in order to improve the reliability of DUS test, all the quantitative characteristics should be grouped according to their stability or correlation coefficients with environment changes; different groups can be given corresponding weighting coefficients according to their stability; the distinctness determination could be based on the weighted measurements of characteristic groups; variety factor should be considered in DUS test and also in the selection of standard varieties used in DUS test. © 2012 Springer-Verlag GmbH.