Interaction of barley tweaky spike and laxatum mutations in F1 hybrids

Abstract

Only few genes are known to regulate the development of flower lodicules in Poacea plants. Among them are lax-a and tw. Ectopic expression of both mutant genes gives conversion of lodicules to stamens. By a comparative examination of the action of lax-a and tw genes on ear and flower structure and especially by a complementation test it has been proven that tw and lax a are in different loci. F1 hybrids between various lax a alleles and tw have a normal structure of flowers. Two alleles from Nordic Gene Bank have a stronger expression on flower structure in heterozygous state, but that phenomenon has been displayed only in 10% of the flowers tested. Keywords: complementation, lodicule development, genes in different loci, different expression of alleles, barley