| Behrain, a semi dwarf-spring rye A. SHAKOOR*, M. Yaqub MUJAHID, Sher MUHAMMAD and M. AFZAL * Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology, Faisalabad, Pakistan In recent years with the development of fertile hexaploid triticale lines, capable of giving high yield, the need for height reduction has become very important. The reduction in plant height of hexaploid triticale was first achieved by Dr. N.E. BORLAUG through incorporating the Norin-10 genes from wheat (ZILLINSKY and ALFONSO 1973). In rye a shrot statured line Snoopy was reported but its use in the triticale breeding programme remained limited mainly due to its poor performance particularly late maturity and susceptibility to disease (ZILLNSKY and ALFONSO 1973). A dominant factor for short straw spontaneous mutant EMI was reported in Vytaka X Kung II (KOBYLYANSKII 1972), and another dwarfing source of winter rye UC-90 was reported by GUSTAFSON et al. (1973). The present source of height, reduction being discussed here was isolated from a population of spring rye endemic to district of Swat in North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Materials and Methods Netherland Pakistan Germaplasm Expedition to the districts of Chitral and Swat, Pakistan was organised during 1976. Rye mixture was quite common in most of the wheat samples collected from these places. However accession NPE 120 collected from Behrain located at an altitude of 1510 metres showed predominance of rye seeds in wheat. The seeds from this sample were sown at Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology, during November, 1976. Data on individual plant basis for plant height, spike and grain characters were recorded at maturity in this population. Results and Discussion The plant height of 124 rye plants raised from accession NPE 120 ranged from 98 cm to 168 cm showing a normal distribution (Fig. 1). The semi-dwarf plants were stout and showed resistance against lodging. The semi-dwarf plants whose height ranged from 98 cm to 113 cm. on an average had 20 gm 1000 grain weight as compared to the normal height plants whose average 1000 grain weight was 25 gm. Similarly the difference in spike length was also obvious. The average spike length of the semi-dwarf plants was 10.5 cm as compared to the tall plants (15.0 cm). The seed colour ranged from amber to dark showing a large variation for this character in both the semi-dwarf and tall growing populations. |
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