(go to KOMUGI Home) (go to WIS List) (go to NO.79 Contents)


4) Breeding for improved grain quality: The nutritional quality of naked barley has been improved using an Ethiopian local variety Hiproly with a gene lys conferring a high lysine content as a gene source. The gene lys is linked to the gene s conferring short rachilla hairs with a recombination value of 8.4% on chromosome 7 (Munck et al. 1970; KarIsson 1972). In grains with a high protein content, hardness generally increases. Nanpuhadaka was used as the recurrent parent to incorporate the high protein quality from Hiproly into Japanese cultivars. In the early hybrid generations, the s gene and grain hardness were used as markers for selection. Naked barley parental line no. 1 (former name: Yonkei 8422) was developed at the Shikoku National Agricultural Experiment Station in 1984 (Kato et al. 1987). This line is comparable to Nanpuhadaka in agronomic characters such as earliness, plant height and yielding performance, and contains 16 percent more crude protein and 27 percent more essential amino acids than Nanpuhadaka. A new naked barley cultivar Sansyuu into which the high protein quality of Hiproly has been incorporated was also released from the Shikoku National Agricultural Experiment Station in 1989 (Ito et al. 1992).


5) Breeding high-yielding barley varieties using F1 hybrids: In order to breed F1 hybrids, attempts to use the male sterile gene msg6 are being made at the National Agriculture Research Center. The male sterile plants with a genotype o- msg6-sex1a-Uc2/o-msg6-sex1a-Uc2 can be efficiently selected from the sledded progenies of a maintainer with a genotype o-Msg6-Sex1 a-uc2/o-msg6-sex1-Uc2 because the o, msg6, sex1a and uc2 loci are closely linked with each other on chromosome 6, and the genes sex1a conferring shrunken endosperm and
uc2 conferring uniculm are useful marker genes for the selection of male sterile plants (Falk et al. 1981). On the other hand, a character to induce chasmogamy is indispensable for the production of F1 seeds. Almost all the Japanese barley cultivars except for Satsuki Nijo showed cleistogamy. The chasmogamy of Satsuki Nijo is controlled by a single recessive gene (Kurauchi et al. 1993). Incorporation of the recessive gene conferring chasmogamy into other Japanese barley genotypes is also being carried out at the National Agriculture Research Center.


4. Production of wheat and barley haploid plants through intergeneric and interspecific crossing

The "bulbosum method" of haploid breeding using Hordeum bulbosum L. has recently been used by breeders of both wheat and barley. Tetraploid and diploid clones of H. bulbosum are used as pollen parents for obtaining the haploid immature embryos of wheat and barley (Kasha and Kao 1970; Barclay 1975). The "maize method" using the pollen of maize (Zea mays L.) or teosinte (Zea mays ssp. mexicana L.) has also been used to obtain haploid immature embryos of wheat (Laurie and Bennett 1986, 1987, 1988; Ushiyama et al. 199 1). The application of the bulbosum method for wheat haploid production is restricted due to the presence of the cross- incompatibility genes, Kr1 and/or Kr2, located on chromosomes 5B and 5A, respectively (Snape et al. 1979; Falk and Kasha 1981, 1983; Sitch et al. 1985). These cross-incompatibility genes are frequently found in wheat genotypes other than Japanese and Chinese ones (Snape et al. 1979; Falk and Kasha 198 1; Inagaki and Snape 1982; Li and Hu 1986). Alternatively, the production of wheat haploid plants using maize pollen is successful even for the wheat genotypes which are cross-incompatible with H. bulbosum (Laurie and Bennett 1986, 1987, 1988). Haploid production of wheat from crosses between wheat x sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and barley haploid production from crosses between barley x maize and barley
x Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) has been also reported (Furusho et al. 1991; Ohkawa et al. 1992). An average of 20~30% of wheat and barley florets formed immature embryos when pollinated with H. bulbosum or maize (Inagaki 1986b; Suenaga and Nakajima 1989; Furusho et al. 1990; Inagaki and Tahir 1990). The injection of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) after pollination is necessary for the formation of haploid immature embryos of wheat and barley in the maize method (Suenaga and Nakajima 1989; Inagaki and Tahir 1990; Furusho et al. 1991).

<--Back | -->Next

(go to KOMUGI Home) (go to WIS List) (go to NO.79 Contents)