Variation in the agronomic characters of microspore-derived plants of Hordeum vulgare CV. Sabarlis

Powell, W., Hayter, A. M., Wood, W., Dunwell, J. M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2147-665X and Huang, B. (1984) Variation in the agronomic characters of microspore-derived plants of Hordeum vulgare CV. Sabarlis. Heredity, 52. pp. 17-23. ISSN 0018-067X doi: 10.1038/hdy.1984.3

Abstract/Summary

Seventy-four spontaneously doubled microspore-derived (M) lines of Hordeum vulgare cv. Sabarlis were grown in the field and their agronomic performance compared with that of 16 selfed seed-derived (S) lines. It was found that two of the characters scored, namely mildew susceptibility, and growth habit did not show any differences between S and M lines. In contrast, the other seven characters, days to awn emergence, plant height, neck length, number of fertile tillers, number of grains on the main tiller, grain yield on the main tiller, and thousand grain weight, all showed significant differences between the M lines and not between the S lines. Overall, the M populations tended to be later to awn emergence, and to be taller with longer necks and fewer tillers than the S population. Possible explanations for this variation are discussed in relation to other examples of "somaclonal variation" described amongst plants regenerated from cultured cells.