Statistical methods to study adaptability and stability in breeding lines of food-type soybeans

ABSTRACT The grains of food-type soybean cultivars, which are characterized by the absence of lipoxygenases and the presence of high levels of proteins and isoflavones, are regarded as functional foods with high acceptance by consumers. However, few cultivars of food-type soybeans are currently available in the Brazilian market. The aim of this work was to study the adaptability and stability of various genotypes of food-type soybeans and to compare the performance of methods, which are based on analysis of variance, non-parametric, regression, multivariate and mixed models. Ten lines of food-type soybeans obtained from the Breeding Program of Soybeans for Human Consumption of the State University of Londrina (UEL/BPSHC) and two commercial varieties, the foodtype cultivar BRS 257 and the cultivar BMX Potência RR, were evaluated in the counties of Londrina, Guarapuava, Ponta Grossa and Pato Branco, Paraná, Brazil, during the two sowing seasons of the harvest of 2014/2015. The characteristic evaluated was grain yield. The adaptability parameters of Eberhart and Russel and Cruz methods showed high correlations with the Wricke model. The parameters provided by the analyses of Lins and Binns and REML/BLUP showed higher grain yield associations and moderated correlations with the Eskridge parameters. The AMMI offered the possibility of use in conjunction with the other methodologies. When yield, adaptability and stability were considered, the genotypes UEL 110, UEL 122, UEL 121 and UEL 123 demonstrated potential for the development of new cultivars of food-type soybeans in which lipoxygenases are absent.