Grain yield and yield related traits of sodium azide induced barley mutant lines

Sa？etak The aim of this study was to evaluate grain yield and yield related traits of sodium azide induced mutant lines from the winter barley variety Kuber. Eighteen advanced mutant lines, parent variety and national standard varieties Obzor and Emon were evaluated. The research was conducted through three seasons (from 2014/2015 to 2016/2017) in the experimental field of the Institute of Agriculture – Karnobat, South- eastern Bulgaria. Highly significant differences among mutants for days to heading, plant height, number of spikes per plant, awn length, peduncle length, spikelet number per spike, grain number per spike, grain weight per spike, 1000 grain weight and grain yield were found. Mutant lines 16/1-3, 16/1-8, 16/1-21, 16/2-7, 16/2-20 and 16/3-12 had a significantly higher grain yield over parent Kuber and over standards Obzor and Emon. Grain yield had a significant positive correlation with the number of spikes per plant and spike length. The maximum phenotypic and genotypic variability were observed for number of spikes per plant and spike length. Spikelet and grain number per spike showed high heritability coupled with high genetic advance, suggesting that these traits could be improved more easily by selection