STABILITYSOFT: A new online program to calculate parametric and non-parametric stability statistics for crop traits

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Science
• Genetics
• Biometrics

Background:

• Improved crop cultivars are essential for agricultural success, with yield determined by quantitative and qualitative traits.
• Genotype-by-environment interactions (GEI) significantly influence quantitative traits like yield and disease resistance.
• Analyzing genotype stability across diverse environments is crucial for cultivar development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce STABILITYSOFT, a user-friendly online software for calculating genotype stability statistics.
• To provide a tool for comparing and selecting stable genotypes across multiple environments.
• To facilitate the analysis of quantitative trait data in plant breeding.

Main Methods:

• STABILITYSOFT utilizes JavaScript and R to compute univariate parametric and non-parametric stability statistics.
• The software supports various statistical measures including mean variance component, ecovalence, regression coefficient, and rank-sum.
• It accommodates both repeated and matrix data types for genotype-by-environment interaction analysis.

Main Results:

• The software calculates a comprehensive suite of stability statistics (e.g., Wricke's ecovalence, Shukla's stability variance, Kang's rank-sum).
• STABILITYSOFT accurately identifies stable genotypes, enabling effective comparison and selection across multiple environments.
• Accuracy was validated using data from several crop plants.

Conclusions:

• STABILITYSOFT offers an accurate and accessible platform for plant scientists, agronomists, and breeders to analyze quantitative trait stability.
• The software visualizes genotype rankings and associations between stability statistics and yield via heat maps.
• Accessible online at https://mohsenyousefian.com/stabilitysoft/, it supports data-driven cultivar improvement.