The main objective of the study was to evaluate and select the superior barley genotypes based on grain yield and some pheno-morphological traits using a new proposed selection index (SIIG). For this purpose, one-hundred-eight pure and four local cultivars (Norouz, Auxin, Nobahar, and WB-97-11) were evaluated as reference genotypes in four warm regions of Iran, including Ahvaz, Darab, Zabol, and Gonbad, during the 2020-2021 cropping seasons. The results of REML analysis showed that the heritability of all traits (except plant height) was higher in Gonbad than in other environments, while the lowest values were estimated in Ahvaz and Zabol environments. In addition, among the measured traits, the thousand kernel weight and grain filling period showed the highest and lowest values of heritability (0.83 and 0.01, respectively). The results showed that the seed yield of genotypes 1, 108, 3, 86, 5, 87, 19, 16, 15, 56, and 18 was higher than the four reference genotypes, and, on the other hand, the SIIG index of these genotypes was greater than or equal to 0.60. Based on the SIIG discriminator index, 4, 8, 31, and 28 genotypes with values greater than or equal to 0.60 were identified as superior for Darab, Ahvaz, Zabol, and Gonbad environments, respectively. As a conclusion, our results revealed that the SIIG index has ideal potential to identify genotypes with high yield and desirable traits. Therefore, the use of this index can be beneficial in screening better genotypes in the early stages of any breeding program for any crop.
Keywords: REML; heritability; multi-trait; selection index; superior genotypes.