Climate change and the increasing demand for wheat are major factors that could influence the breeding program to accelerate the process of introducing new varieties to the market. However, the long time required for the development of new wheat varieties blocks the cycle of introducing new genotypes adapted to new climatic conditions. In this study, we evaluated 10 commercial wheat varieties in two seasons, 2025 and 2026, at the Institute for Agricultural Research and Development (SCDA) Lovrin. We evaluated several morphological, quality and yield traits in wheat to find a correlation model in the selection of new wheat. According to our results, plant height (p < 0.05), protein content (p < 0.001) and starch content (p < 0.01) recorded a significant involvement of the genotype factor. On the other hand, the genotype factor did not influence grain yield (p > 0.05), spike length (p > 0.05), hectoliter weight (p > 0.05) or thousand-grain weight (p > 0.05). Furthermore, correlation analysis revealed a strong negative correlation between protein content and starch content (r = -0.96), a negative correlation between protein content and hectoliter weight (r = -0.72) and a positive correlation between hectoliter weight and starch content (r = 0.68). The results provide a perspective for further studies, with more genotypes involved and more locations, to reveal a more pronounced pattern of correlation, which may be beneficial for breeding programs in selection processes.

wheat breeding; traits correlation analysis; principal component analysis (PCA)

agronomy

Presentation: poster