Sensitivity of Panicle Related Quantitative Characteristics of Rice DUS Test to Environmental Changes

Abstract

Panicle related characteristics of rice have close relationship with rice yield. Among the 48 panicle related characteristics of rice DUS test, 8 quantitative characteristics were used to research whether environmental changes had impact on their expression. Results showed that, (1) in general, measurements of the 8 characteristics of the same variety in different environments were visibly different, and when measurements were translated into “notes” according to “DUS Test Guideline of Rice”, such difference could be narrowed, indicating the 8 characteristics were sensitive to environmental changes, while corresponding expression states and “notes” could weaken such influence; (2) from the results of SPSS statistic analysis, environment factor were less influential than variety factor to the 8 characteristics; (3) compared with previous research, the 8 panicle related quantitative characteristics were less affected by environmental changes than quantitative characteristics of vegetative growing period; (4) “notes” difference of the same variety in different environments were correlated with significance analysis of environment impact on characteristic expression, revealing the potential of statistic analysis in checking the availability of results of DUS tests gained from different test locations. To reduce the impact of environmental changes to characteristic expression, suggestion of fixing the DUS test of the same plant genus and species in one appointed station was also made in this study.