Evaluation of phenotypic stability in chickpea genotypes using GGE-Biplot

The objective of this study was to explore the effect of genotype (G) and genotype × environment interaction (GE) on grain yield of 17 chickpea genotypes (Cicer arietinum L.) in five different research stations of Iran. Yield data were analyzed using the GGE biplot method. E (environment) explained 86.44% of the total (G + E + GE) variation, whereas G and GEI captured 2.48% and 11.08%, respectively. The first 2 principal components (PC1 and PC2) were used to create a 2-dimensional GGE biplot and explained 56% and 24% of GGE sum of squares (SS), respectively. Collective analysis of the biplots suggests three chickpea mega-environments in Iran. The first mega-environment contained locations: Kermanshah and Gorgan with genotypes G4 and G17. Genotypes G13 and G14 gave the high performance in location Ilam and genotypes G15 gave the high performance in locations Lorestsn and Gachsaran. Genotypes G4, G7, G15 and G17 had the highest mean yield and genotypes G8 and G9 had the poorest mean yield. Also genotypes G1, G4, G7, G10 and G17 were highly stable. On the other hand, Gorgan was the best representative of the overall locations and the most powerful to discriminate genotypes.