Effect of genotype and environment on agronomical characters of common vetch (Vicia sativa L.)

Common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) is an important legume which is widely distributed around the world and an excellent forage and green manure crop, which could provide hay for pastoral areas in northwestern China, where feed is scarce during winter and early spring. However, there is currently limited information on genetic variation for some agronomic traits of common vetch, such as shattering rate, herbage yield, and seed yield. In our study, genotypic variation, phenotypic and genotypic correlations were estimated for 18 traits among 418 germplasms accessions of common vetch across 2 years, 2015 and 2016. All the traits evaluated had significant (P < 0.05) genotypic variation. Genotype-by-year interaction for all traits was significant (P < 0.05). The estimates of mean repeatability for the traits across 2 years ranged from 0.1316 for seed yield to 0.8571 for shattering rate. Three common vetch accessions groups were identified with low shattering rate, high herbage yield and high seed yield. Accession groups with a potential to breeding pools were also identified using pattern analysis. The results showed that the trait SR was significantly negatively correlated with DW and SY, which provided key information for common vetch breeding program with low shattering rate, high herbage yield and high seed yield.