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Is Dormant Wild Oat (Avena Fatua) Line M73 A Homozygous Population?

J. King, S.A. Fennimore, and M.E. Foley
1996 NCWSS Proceedings, Vol. 51
Abstract. Dormant wild oat (Avena fatua L.) line M73 is used extensively in investigations of seed dormancy and after ripening. Some variability in the germination of M73 caryopses has been observed. Others have reported that M73 has been self-pollinated for at least ten generations, and is assumed to be homozygous at all loci. The objective of this research was to verify that M73 is a genetically pure inbred line.

Fourteen early and late germinating M73 caryopses were selected from a control population germinating in petri dishes at 25° C. These caryopses were planted in the greenhouse and leaf tissue harvested from young plants for later extraction of DNA. After harvesting leaf tissue, the plants were allowed to regrow, self-pollinate and produce progeny seed. DNA was isolated from early and late germinating individuals. The DNA from early and late germinating individuals was bulked (pooled) and the bulks screened using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in conjunction with 200 ten base random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers. Twenty progeny seed were randomly selected from each of the early and late germinating individuals and evaluated for germination in petri dishes at 25° C. In addition, 20 seed from five randomly selected M73 plants were included in the evaluation as a control. Germination was determined periodically. After 175 days the remaining seeds were imbibed in ten mM gibberellic acid to determine viability. An analysis of variance was performed on all data.

No polymorphisms were detected between the two pools of early and late germinating individuals. Absence of polymorphisms indicates that variability in germination is primarily due to environmental effects rather than genetic differences. Cumulative germination percentages (mean±SD) of progeny seed after 175 days of imbibition from early, late, and control M73 population were; 2.8 (±6.7), 1.1 (±2.1) and 2.5 (±2.9), respectively. Based on the RAPD analysis and progeny testing results, we conclude that M73 is a pure inbred line.