Premium
Studies on the tolerance to sulphur dioxide of grass populations in polluted areas
Author(s) -
WILSON G. B.,
BELL J. N. B.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8137.1990.tb04719.x
Subject(s) - lolium perenne , biology , dominance (genetics) , genetic analysis , botany , genetics , poaceae , gene
summary Clones of Lolium perenne L., chosen as sensitive or tolerant to sulphur dioxide (SO 2 ) injury, were employed in a half‐dialled crossing programme to carry out an analysis of the genetic basis of tolerance to acute SO 2 concentrations. Their progeny were fumigated with SO 2 and the percentage injury on the foliage scored and subjected to an analysis of variance designed to test an additive dominance model. The genetic analysis indicated that dominance was towards SO 2 susceptibility. Further analysis of the relationship between variance and covariance of members of the same parental array supported this finding and suggested that only a few genes were involved. The results show clearly that the relative sensitivity of L. perenne to acute SO 2 concentrations is heritable, with significant additive and non‐additive components. A comparison with the very limited number of other studies on the genetic basis of SO 2 tolerance, suggests that it is highly variable between species.