Pollen competition in barley

Pollen competition was studied in barley using excessive pollination as the selective agent and isozyme loci as genetic markers. F,‐pollen from the cross cv. Brita × cv. Claret was crossed back to Brita and Claret as well as to cv. Golf, producing progeny which were tested for deviations from 1:1 segregations. Significant deviations were found only in β ‐Amy of the cross Golf x F 1 although the same allele was in excess in the other two crosses. Chi‐square homogeneity tests showed significant differences in the genotype distribution of the linked locus‐pair Prx4, Est5 between the three crosses. The results suggest that further studies should be conducted on the potential applications of pollen selection in barley improvement.