Investigation of Diversity and Classification of Some Barley Lines using Physiological and Morphological Characteristics

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) as one of the main crops is important economically for Iran. Genetic diversity and it`s evaluation is foundation of plant breeding projects. Awareness about genetic variation is effective in selection of parental lines for future breeding programs. This study was aimed to evaluate both morphological and physiological characteristics followed by classification of 18 barley inbred lines based on RCBD design with four replications. Results of descriptive statistics revealed vast range of variation for most of studied traits. Among studied traits, seed yield with standard deviation of 614.06 possessed maximum divergent. Also, hectoliter weight and grain yield had the lowest and the highest coefficients of variation values of 0.58 and 8.88, respectively. Univariate and multivariate analysis of variance depicted remarkable genetic variation among studied genotypes based on morphological and physiological traits. Classification of studied barley genotypes using both types of inspected traits could classify them in 3 separate groups. In this research, there was not any coincidence between two types of classifications. This is resulted that line number 3 with high pedanclean length (7.18 cm), 1000 kernel weight (42.2 gr), yield (5172.5 kgh-1), dry matter percentage (31.3 %), fresh weight (0.463 gr), turgusens weight (0.717 gr), relative water content (58.82 %) and also another moderate characteristics could considerable as promising one for arid and semi-arid region after regional field trials.