Evaluation of some Sugar Beet Varieties under Drought stress using Meta-analysis I- Yield and Related Traits

Abstract

The current study's goals were to investigate the physiological responses and to evaluate agronomic characters and sugar related characters in fifteen sugar beet varieties using AMMI and principal components biplot to find drought-tolerant sugar beet varieties under drought conditions, screen sugar beet varieties with high yield potential, then assess the degree of relationship among the different traits. Two experiments was conducted at a privet farm in Moghra Region, South of Alamein, Matrouh Governorate, Egypt (latitude of 30° 11' 58.13˝ N and longitude of 28° 59' 21.05˝E) in 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 seasons. Results showed that sucrose %, purity%, Leaf area index, impurities, leaf relative water content, root yield, sugar yield, varied significantly among varieties under drought conditions. Also, significant differences among varieties for traits% were detected in all treatments during both seasons. Concerning proline concentration, the results shown that proline concentration was higher and significantly increased by decreasing IWR from 100% to 60% of the IWR in both seasons. In addition, the first two interaction principal components (IPCA1 and IPCA2) for proline accounted jointly for 96.67% of the variation caused by interaction. Results showed highly significant and positive correlation between root yield, Water use efficiency of root yield and impurities, followed by root yield and Leaf area index then root yield and proline while root yield negative correlation with purity%. In contrast, high positive correlation between sugar yield and proline, followed by proline and sucrose %.