Assessment of similarity of inbred lines and F₁ generations in collection of winter rye (Secale cereale L.) / Ocena podobieństwa linii wsobnych i pokolenia F₁ w kolekcji żyta ozimego (Secale cereale L.)

Effective tools for evaluation of diversity in the collected gene resources of a given species are multivariate statistical methods. They provide information on phenotypic and genetic variability of collected material. The subjects of this study were nine inbred lines and three F1 generations of winter rye (Secale cereale L.), growing in experimental plots of the Polish Academy of Sciences Botanical Garden, Centre for Biological Diversity Conservation in Powsin. The evaluation was performed over the period of 3 years. Observations were made of the following traits: length of stem, length of spike, number of nodes in spike rachis, number of kernels per spike, weight of kernels per spike, weight of 1000 kernels, length of flag leaf, length of subflag leaf, length of third leaf, width of flag leaf, width of subflag leaf, width of third leaf, area of leaves per stem, number of stems per plant and area of leaves per plant.

On the basis of cluster analysis and principal components analysis, two genetically homogeneous groups were identified. Mean values and standard deviations were calculated for each trait in each group and for all genotypes together. Multivariate distance matrix permitted identification of the most genetically similar and most distant forms.