Groat Protein Percentage in Avena Sativa L. Fatuoids and in a Fatuoid ✕ A. Sterilis L. Cross

Lyrene, P. M.; Shands, H. L.

Groat Protein Percentage in Avena Sativa L. Fatuoids and in a Fatuoid ✕ A. Sterilis L. Cross

1974

Lyrene, P. M. | Shands, H. L.

Groat protein percentages were compared for fatuoid and nonfatuoid plants from two plots of Avena sativa found to be segregating for spontaneous fatuoid mutations. Fatuoid plants averaged 3.0% higher in protein. The “fatuoid complex” of characters in A. sativa fatuoids, which includes spikelet shattering, awns, and rachilla pubescence, is closely paralleled by the “wild oat” complex of A. sterilis. In A. sativa ✕ A. sterilis crosses, progeny showing the wild-oat traits average 2 to 3% higher in protein than those that do not. This figure was closely matched by the increased protein of fatuoids over nonfatuoids. The gene which produces the fatuoid characters in A. sativa fatuoids was found to be allelic with the one producing the wild-oat characters of A. sterilis. Evidence for this was the presence of shattering, awns, and rachilla pubescence in 12 F₁ plants from the cross A. sativa ‘Garland’ fatuoid ✕ A sterilis PI 295932. In the F₂, plants segregated in a ratio of 3 plants with spikelets like A. sterilis to 1 plant with fatuoid-like spikelets. The two groups did not differ in groat protein percentage. The higher protein percentages associated with spikelet shattering and awns in A. sterilis and the fatuoids may be caused by these undesirable traits, and thus inseparable from them. If this is the case, A. sterilis and the fatuoids may prove less useful in protein breeding than originally thought.

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