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Detection of Identification Errors in Germplasm Collections¹

A germplasm collection contains seed of many accessions. During nursery increases of accessions, seeds may be mistakenly planted in a row identified as a different accession. When such mistakes are not detected, the value of the collection declines in proportion to the number of wrongly, ldentified accessions it contains. This paper develops methods for calculating estimates of the degree of influence of several factors in detecting identification errors in nurseries; it tests those estimates with data from over 4,000 wheat (Triticum sp.) accessions.

For a given descriptor, the probability of detection of an identification error increases as the number of descriptor states increases and as the frequencies of the different states approach equality. When more than one descriptor is used, efficiency of error detection is greatest when the different states of the descriptors are independently distributed. The frequency of error detection was greater in randomized nurseries than in nurseries planted in order of accession numbers.

Key Words: Wheat • Triticum

² Research agronomists, Germplasm Resources Laboratory, ARS, USDA, Beltsville, MD 20705.

Received for publication September 22, 1980.