Recently, drought stress became more frequent and this presents a serious challenge for plant breeders to create tolerant barley genotypes with good stability under water deficit conditions. The present study aims to evaluate the effects of water deficit stress with 20% of maximum soil water capacity at heading stage on the physiological traits of some barley genotypes and to set recommendations on their possible use in drought tolerance breeding programs. The results revealed significant differences between genotypes in all tested traits. In this regard, Rahma and Tissa maintained a high relative water content and cell membrane stability under water deficit stress, respectively. These characteristics present effective mechanisms to face drought stress in semi-arid regions. Jaidor was the most stay-green genotype characterized by maintaining a high level of chlorophyll content after water deficit stress treatment. Moreover, Acsad176 accumulated high soluble sugars content as a response to water deficit stress. These genotypes could be considered as potential sources of genes for selection of drought tolerant barley varieties.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Multi-environment trials were conducted in two locations (Algiers and Setif ) during two crop seasons in order to assess the responses of 17 genotype of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) by evaluation of genotype-by-environment interactions (GEI) on grain yield and determine the stable genotypes. Results showed significant (p <0.001) effects of environment and genotypes and their interaction on grain yield. The genotypes had different behavior conducting to yield variation in the tested locations. So, selection could consider a specific adaptation of the genotypes and their yield stability. The Additive main effects and multiplicative interaction analysis is a useful tool allowing to explore important information on the obtained results; it revealed that 'Plaisant/ charan01' is the most stable genotype followed by 'Barberousse' and 'Barberousse/Chorokhod' , while 'Begonia' and 'Plaisant' were unstable with specific adaptation to Setif location during 2018/19. the cultivar 'Express' presented a high productivity.

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