abstract
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In the post Green Revolution period, spot blotch (SB) became a major disease for wheat in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of South Asia. Hence breeding for resistance to this disease has been a major goal of most breeding programs in this region. In this study an effort was made to identify spot blotch resistant lines with good agronomic background by evaluating advanced elite lines in the Wheat Association Mapping Initiative (WAMI) population. The 289 lines in the WAMI panel were assessed for three consecutive years (2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15) at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi falling under EGP of India. The significant differences among genotype, year and genotype × year for AUDPC, days to heading and plot yield exhibited considerable phenotypic variations, possibly due to the diverse genetic background and suggested that environment (years) may be important for the expression of spot blotch disease. The negative correlation among earliness and spot blotch susceptibility was observed whereas, AUDPC and days to heading was significantly and negatively correlated with plot yield. Based on GGE biplot, the two principal components explained 100% of the total variance for AUDPC and days to heading while 84.5% for grain yield. Numerous genotypes possessing good spot blotch resistances as well as high yield potential and adaptation under spot blotch conducive environment were identified. These genotypes could be used in wheat the ongoing improvement programmes for developing superior genotypes for yield and spot blotch resistance.