Classification of soybean varieties from the VIR collection by economically valuable traits using the clustering method

The studies were carry out in 2021-2023 at the Omsk Agrarian Scientific Center in the southern forest-steppe of the Omsk Region. This article presents the results of a comprehensive assessment of 63 collection samples of soybeans from the All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources named after N.I. Vavilov (VIR) of various ecological and geographical origins: from Russia (30 pcs.), Ukraine (7 pcs.), Poland (7 pcs.), the Republic of Belarus (6 pcs.), Sweden (4 pcs.), Canada (3 pcs.). We used the VIR methodology (2018) for field tests, accounts and observations. The statistical data processing was carried out according to the B.A. Dospekhov's manual by (1985) using the Microsoft Excel application package. The clustering data was performed by the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) using standard GNU Octave functions for 14 economically valuable features: plant height and attachment of lower beans, the number of productive branches, nodes, beans and seeds per plant; seed weight per plant and weight of 1000 seeds; proportion of protein and fat in seeds; field germination, plant survival; seed yield per 1 m2; duration of the growing season. We identified six clusters differing by degree of severity of the economically valuable parameters. The most numerous were the first three clusters, which included 15, 22, and 16 samples, respectively. Varieties from the third cluster are sources of early maturity (96 days), but they are the shortest-stemmed (59.3 cm) with insufficiently high attachment of the lower beans (9.1 cm) and low-yielding (204.2 g/m2). Samples from the smallest fourth and fifth clusters, two and three pieces, respectively, are of the greatest interest for breeding to increase yield: Persona and Garmoniya (All-Russian Research Institute of Soybeans, Russia), Anthracite (Ukraine). With yields ranging from 352 to 361 g/m2 (significantly higher than the standard variety Sibiriada), they had optimal stem height (more than 82 cm) and attachment height of the lower beans (11-12 cm).