Cultivar Selection and Test Site Evaluation of Cotton Regional Trials in Jiangsu Province Based on GGE Biplot

[Objective] This study was to evaluate the high yielding and stability of candidate cultivars, depict the adaptive planting region, analyze trial location discrimination ability and representativeness, as well as identify the ideal cultivar and trial location, with the aim to provide theory background for cultivar selection and reasonable scheme of test location in Jiangsu Province. [Method] The GGE biplot method was used to analyze the lint cotton yield of 12 experimental genotypes in the 6 test locations(three replicates in each) of the cotton regional trial in Jiangsu Province in 2013. [Result] The effects of genotype(G), environment(E), and genotype by environment interaction(G×E) on lint cotton yield were all highly significant(P<0.01), which made it necessary to further explore the specific pattern of genotype by environment interaction. Jinmian118(G4) and SF3303(G5) were the best ideal genotypes screened by the "ideal cultivar" and "ideal location" view of GGE biplot, and the ordination of test sites based on the ideal index were in the order of Dafeng(DF), Yanliang(YL), Liuhe(LH), Dongtai(DT), Yancheng(YC), and Nantong(NT), among which NT was relatively weak in representing of the whole target cotton planting region in Jiangsu Province. The "similarity among locations" view of GGE biplot clustered all trial locations into one group, showing that the test sites in the cotton planting region in Jiangsu Province were in the same mega-environment.The "which-won-where" view of GGE biplot indicated that cotton cultivar Jinmian118(G4) was the most appropriate cultivar in the homogeneous cotton planting region in Jiangsu Province. [Conclusion] Among the candidate cultivars, Jinmian118 and SF3303 were identified as the most ideal cultivars in this set of conventional cotton regional trial in Jiangsu Province; the test site of Dafeng ranked the first out of all locations in terms of discrimination and representativeness, and all test locations were clustered into the same mega-environmet, which indicated the high efficiency of cultivar selection in the cotton regional trial in Jiangsu Province.