COMPARISON OF RELATIVE VARIABILITY OF GRO WTH TRAITS AND GENETIC SIMILARITY IN WINTER-WHEAT CULTIVARS

A new biometrical-genetic method [1] was tested. The method was propos ed to estimate similarity and differences between genotypes and is bas ed on ecologic and ontogenetic variation of a growth trait in serial f ield trials of these genotypes. The following data were used: three-ye ar multiple measurements of three quantitative traits (plant height, e ar length, and flag leaf square) in 22 common, winter cultivars tested in competitive field trials and seven-year preharvest measurements of heights of mature plants. Data on plant height confirmed the previous ly proposed hypothesis on similarity of relative variation of the trai t during ontogeny and in ecologic gradients. It was shown that paramet ers of ecologic and ontogenetic similarity of cultivars correlated wit h coefficients of relationship between cultivars, indices of similarit y between alleles of genes encoding storage proteins, and with diverge nce between dates of phenophase initiation in these cultivars.