Quantitative variation within and between populations of the wild barley, Hordeum Murinum

Abstract

Variation in quantitative characters was studied in several wild populations and families of the weedy barley, Hordeum murinum. The hereditary, non-herediatary and interactive components of the variance were assessed for up to 13 metrical characters. Broad-sense heritabilities were calculated as were the relative contributions of populations, families and individuals to the overall variance. Correlation between characters was also considered. Significant genetic differences were observed between populations and between families within a population for developmental, morphological and reproductive characters. For most characters, the largest component of variance was due to population differences. Heritability was high for developmental characters and low for those associated with reproduction. The results have been discussed in light of experimental procedures used to assess the variation in wild populations for plant gene resource screening. © 1983, The Genetical Society of Great Britain.