Regeneration and evaluation of the rye accesions in National Gene Bank of Iran for agro-morphological traits.

Rye is a cool season cereal which has been used as forage for a long time. Its high degree of acclimation increases the possibility to use unfertile soils and produce under unsuitable conditions. In order to regenerate and characterize the Agro-morphological traits and evaluate the genetic diversity of rye germplasm collection in National Plant Gene Bank of Iran, for the future breeding programs, 271 accessions of Rey (Secale sp) were evaluated in the experimental field of Seed and Plant Improvement Institute. The Agro-morphological traits including; day to maturity, plant height, stem hairiness below ear, spike length, number of spiklets per spike, awn length, shattering, grain yield and seed weight were measured based on Bioversity descriptors. Identification of genotypes based on identification key indicated that a large portion of genotypes were Secale cereale ssp. and only 15 accessions included in Secale montanum, therefore the traits were analysed in Secale cereale ssp. Results indicated that there was a high degree of genetic diversity in the rye collection of gene bank. Evaluation of quantitative traits showed that yield and seed weight were the most diverse traits and in the qualitative traits based on Shanon Index, awn length and stem hairiness below ear exhibited the highest diversity between traits. Cluster analysis of the accession's origins based on qualitative and quantitative traits resulted five clusters. First group with the least mean for days to maturity have the maximum plant height and spiklet per spike. Second group including accessions of following provinces: Chaharmahal-o-bakhtiary, Yazd, Azarbaijan Garbi, Azarbaijan Sharghi, Khorasan, Kordestan, Zanjan, Fars, Kerman and Kermanshah. Based on Gusan climatic devotion are the arid and semi-arid origins and have highest seed weight and spiklet per spike. The least spike length and number of spiklets was in the third group (Markazi province). Accesions in fourth group (Hamedan province) exhibited the highest mean for days to maturity, spike length and awn length. The least plant height was observed in fifth group, witch was originated from Semnan province.