Integration of statistical and physiological analyses of adaptation of near-isogenic barley lines

Seven near-isogenic barley lines, differing for three independent mutant genes, were grown in 15 environments in Spain. Genotype x environment interaction (G x E) for grain yield was examined with the Additive Main Effects and Multiplicative interaction (AMMI) model. The results of this statistical analysis of multilocation yield-data were compared with a morpho-physiological characterization of the lines at two sites (Molina-Cano et al. 1990). The first two principal component axes from the AMMI analysis were strongly associated with the morpho-physiological characters. The independent but parallel discrimination among genotypes reflects genetic differences and highlights the power of the AMMI analysis as a tool to investigate G x E. Characters which appear to be positively associated with yield in the germplasm under study could be identified for some environments.