Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoaWilld.) is an ancient food crop that originated in the Andes. It has good nutritional properties that increasingly attract interest around the world and it is considered as a future crop for food security and climate change adaptation. Currently, there is a great need to develop new quinoa varieties with higher yield, tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, and adaptation to new growing areas. Despite the existence of breeding programs, quantitative genetic parameters that are relevant for selection gain have hardly been investigated for quinoa. We estimated these parameters for important agronomic traits in six segregating populations of 96 lines each, derived from crosses of popular traditional Peruvian quinoa varieties. The traits were evaluated in trials at several locations in the Peruvian highlands over 3 years. Maturity was the best phenological stage for trait evaluation because at this stage we obtained high estimates of heritability and high correlation of panicle trait indices with grain yield. Based on these traits, we selected the 18 best lines and characterized them in additional field trials for the same traits. Three lines (HUA × KAN53, SAL × NCO46 and SAL × PAN171) combined advantageous traits of their parents and showed lower plant height, earlier maturity and higher yield. Our work shows that the estimation of variance and variance components in the amphidiploid crop quinoa provides useful information for the design of breeding programs and the selection of improved genotypes for cultivation in the Peruvian highlands.

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is valued for its resilience to abiotic stress; however, germination and seedling establishment remain highly sensitive to salinity. While its salt tolerance at later growth stages has been well studied, strategies to improve early development under high salinity are limited, and the role of halotolerant plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) in quinoa has not been systematically investigated. This study assessed the ability of three Azospirillum brasilense strains (BR-11001, BR-11002, and BR-11005) to increase the germination and seedling performance of the cultivar ‘BRS Piabiru’ under saline stress. A 3 × 4 factorial design with three bacterial treatments and four NaCl concentrations (0, 150, 300, and 450 mM) was conducted in a completely randomized arrangement, with four replicates per treatment. Seeds were surface sterilized, inoculated, and incubated at 18 °C under constant light for 10 days. Elevated salinity (≥300 mM NaCl) drastically reduced germination and seedling vigor in the controls. Inoculation with BR-11002 significantly alleviated salinity-induced damage, sustaining over 84% germination at 450 mM and increasing seedling biomass at 300 mM. These findings highlight the potential of halotolerant A. brasilense, particularly BR-11002, as bioinoculants to promote quinoa establishment in salt-affected soils, supporting sustainable agriculture and food system resilience.