Exploitation of yield stability in barley

Area of Science:

• Agronomy
• Plant Breeding
• Genetics

Background:

• Yield stability is crucial for winter barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) to adapt to increasing extreme weather events.
• Developing high-yielding and stable varieties is a key objective in barley breeding programs.
• Current breeding strategies may not adequately capture yield stability due to trial limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the optimal field trial size for accurately assessing winter barley genotype yield stability.
• To compare the grain yield performance and stability of two-rowed and six-rowed lines with hybrids.
• To investigate the relationship between agronomic traits and yield stability in winter barley.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of five series of 3-year winter barley registration trials in Germany.
• Evaluation of static and dynamic yield stability and grain yield performance across 10-45 environments.
• Comparison of six-rowed hybrids, six-rowed inbred lines, and two-rowed inbred lines.

Main Results:

• Precise yield stability assessment requires phenotyping in at least 40 environments, exceeding typical breeding program capacity.
• No consistent association was found between agronomic traits and yield stability, limiting indirect selection.
• Hybrids demonstrated superior grain yield performance and dynamic yield stability compared to line varieties.

Conclusions:

• Breeding hybrid winter barley varieties offers a promising strategy for achieving both high yield and enhanced yield stability.
• The development of hybrid varieties is essential for future-proofing barley crops against climate variability.
• Current field trial dimensions may be insufficient for robust yield stability selection.