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Evaluation of Yield Components as Selection Criteia in Barley Breeding¹

A combination of statistical procedures was used to determine which yield components were most likely to be effective selection criteria for yield improvement in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). The procedures included: 1) simple phenotypic correlations between grain yield and its endpoint components, 2) ridge regression to determine which characters were strongly interrelated, and 3) multivariate models and path analysis. Each procedure was applied in a 2-year studyo f 25 near-homozygous spring barley selections from ‘Coast’/‘Lion’l/‘Winter Club’ and two check cultivars. Yield/plant (Y) was the primary measure of grain yield. Components measured were X₁, spikes/plant; X₂, kernels/spike; X₃, kernel weight; and X₄, kernel weight/spike. Two models were studied using original data and log transformed data: Y_A, involving X₁, X₂, and X₃, and Y_B, involving X₁ and X₄. These relate to grain yleld/plant as Y_A = X₁-X₂-X₃ and Y_B = X₁-X₄ because X₄ = X₂X-₃. Phenotypic correlations gave unstable inter-year and intercharacter relationships. X₃ and X₄ were strongly correlated with Y. Path analysis of model Y_A identified X₃ and model Y_B identified X₄ as having stronger direct effects on yield than other characters. X₄, weight/spike, was judged as the primary character worthy of further investigation as a simply applied selection criterion. Results of the analyses with the log transformed data were completely consistent and practically identical with the analyses of untransformed data.

Key Words: Hordeum vulgare L. • Ridge regression • Path analysis

² Specialist, Agronomy and Range Science and superintendent, U.C. Tulelake Field Stn., Tulelake, CA 96134; professor of agronomy and range science, Univ. of California, Davis, CA 95616.

Received for publication June 5, 1981.