CHARACTER COMBINATIONS IN RELATION TO ENDOSPERM DEVELOPMENT IN INTER-SPECIFIC TRITICUM CROSSES

Abstract

A study was made of the frequency of different character combinations in relation to seed plumpness in the F2 generation of crosses of T. durum, T. dicoccum and T. persicum with T. vulgare. Some inter-specific character combinations occurred frequently and others were rare, which was expected since the characters varied markedly in their frequency of inter-specific combinations with other characters. The data did not support the popular assumption that inter-specific character combinations of value were to be found largely in plants from shrunken seeds rather than in those from plump seeds. Plants from plump seeds possessed nearly as large a proportion of the combinations which were missing in the plants from shrunken seeds as did the latter plants with respect to the former. The difference could not be considered significant and none of the missing combinations appeared to be important as far as practical breeding is concerned.