Abstract

 

The thousand-seed  weight (TSW) is one of the traits which is related to yield and milling quality of wheat. The aim of this work was to study the variability of the thousand-seed weight of bread  wheat varieties grown under different environmental conditions. Fifty wheat varieties in a field experiment designed as a randomized block system were used for this study  in three replications on the field in Kraljevo, Serbia during two vegetation seasons (2015-2017). The seeds were sown at 0.10 m distance  in 1.0 m long rows spaced apart 0.2 m. Sixty plants at the full maturity stage (20 plants  replication-1) were harvested and  used for analyzing the thousand-seed weight. The analysis of variance was performed by MSTAT C (5.0 version). Similarities among wheat varieties were analyzed by using the  hierarchical method of  the Euclidean distance. The results have shown significant differences in the thousand-seed weight among varieties in both years. On average, in the first vegetation season the lowest thousand-seed weight (39.14 g) was  recorded in the Lepenica variety, while the highest thousand-seed weight (54.66 g) was recorded in the Zadruga variety.  In the second vegetation season, the thousand-seed weight varied from the lowest in NS Rana 2 (34.57 g) to the highest in Šumadinka (50.33 g). The similarity  was illustrated on a dendogram containing four clusters in the first year and six clusters of varieties in the second year. The prominent cluster contained different numbers and compositions of varieties with the highest degree of similarity. The differences in average of the thousand-seed weight were determined by the genetic, environmental factor and by genotype/environment interaction.           

 

Key words: wheat, variety, thousand-seed weight, similarity, environment.