| A genetic analysis of rye populations from Iran H. KUCKUCK and A. R. KRANZ Institute of Plant-breeding, Hannover, Germany The senior author, during his assignment as FAO-expert of cereal-breeding in Iran in 1952-1954 made cereal collections in order to preserve the germ plasm particularly that of wheat in living collections as basic material for his breeding program. Simultaneously he turned his attention to rye, which is commonly spread as weed in fields of cultivated wheat and of an overwhelming variability unknown in the cultivated rye varieties in Europe. These primitive rye types seemed to him of great interest and value from the evolutionary point of view as well as for breeding purposes. Samples of 206 rye populations were picked out from wheat fields. The samples consisted of 4 to 68 ears; they were threshed and grown separately for an analysis of the populations carried out by the junior author in 1955 and 1956 in Hannover. The main results of these studies which are to be published in detail in the "Zeitschrift fur Pflanzenzuchtung" can be summarized as follows: The following 11 characteristic features were studied with regard to their frequencies in the populations: 1. fragility of the rachis 2. colour of the glumes 3. number of the flowers in a spikelet (2 or 3) 4. colour of the auricula-junctura (red-bright green) 5. type of life: annual or perennial 6. winter- or summer-type 7. length of the stems 8. number of the stems 9. number of the spikelets 10. selffertility 11. lethality The populations after having been combined in 11 "major" populations revealed significant differences in the above mentioned characteristics. The variation of these populations depends on their geographical origin and is due to the 3 evolutionary factors: selection, isolation and hybridization. |
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