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Moving beyond the Winter Hardiness Plateau in U.S. Oat Germplasm
Author(s) -
Livingston David P.,
Elwinger Gerald F.,
Murphy J. Paul
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
crop science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.76
H-Index - 147
eISSN - 1435-0653
pISSN - 0011-183X
DOI - 10.2135/cropsci2004.1966
Subject(s) - hardiness (plants) , biology , germplasm , cultivar , freezing tolerance , avena , hordeum vulgare , agronomy , poaceae , transgressive segregation , horticulture , quantitative trait locus , biochemistry , gene
Progress has been slow in the development of winter‐hardy oat ( Avena sativa L.) cultivars. No cultivar released in the last 40 yr has better freezing tolerance than the cultivar Norline, which was released in 1960. However, in an analysis of 65 yr of field testing, Norline was not more winter hardy than ‘Wintok’, which was released in 1940. An analysis of individual location–year combinations of Wintok and Norline suggested that progeny from a cross of these two cultivars might contain germplasm that was transgressive for freezing tolerance. The objective of this research was to use mass selection in controlled environment freeze tests on successive segregating generations of the cross between Wintok and Norline to identify inbred progenies with significantly greater winter hardiness than either parent. Following three generations of seed increase and three generations of selection for freezing tolerance in controlled freeze tests, several F 7 genotypes were identified with greater freezing tolerance than both parents. In the F 9 generation, two of the lines exhibited a higher level of freezing tolerance than either parent, and both were slightly more freezing tolerant than the moderately winter‐hardy barley, Hordeum vulgare ‘Trebi’.