National rye collection characteristic evaluation and uses

Abstract

 Bulgarian ex situ rye collection is the forth in Europe and occupied seventh place in the world. Botanical diversity cover all taxons, spread in the largest collections. The biggest taxon is Secale cereale subsp. cereale. The advantage of our collection is preserved endemic and relict species Secale rhodopaeum Delipavlov. Eighteen quantitative traits were studied for 53 local unique landraces and improved varieties (created and collected till 1957 year). Accessions have a low variation for 8 traits: stem nodes – number on main stem; days to heading; ear – length, cm and grain quality traits – 1000 grain mass, g, test weight, kg/hl, protein and lyzine and histidin content in grain. Varieties are with the most valuable traits: medium-high stem, short vegeta¬tive period and high ear productivity. In the dendrogram these accessions are well separated. The most determinant traits that contribute diversion for the first and second components included: internode – length; days to heading; ear – length, cm; seeds per ear in number and grams. For Bulgarian rye local genotypes the most important traits were heading date, plant height, pan¬icle/ear seed capacity, TGW and protein content. The accessions compensate lower absolute mass with high protein content.