Agronomic effects of a reciprocal translocation in a widely grown Spanish barley variety

Abstract

A large spontaneous reciprocal translocation is present in a widely grown Spanish barley cv. 'Albacete'. It has been hypothesized that high popularity of 'Albacete' with farmers, particularly in semi-arid areas where barley is grown under rainfed conditions, may be due to the presence of this translocation. Agronomic effects of this translocation were studied at two locations and two growing seasons in a set of 245 doubled haploid lines derived from the F 1s of four crosses involving 'Albacete'. The results have shown a significant positive main effect of the translocation on the thousand kernel weight and a significant environment by translocation interaction for the thousand kernel weight, lodging and tiller number. However, the results do not support the hypothesis that this chromosomal structural change alone provides an increased adaptation to low-yielding sites. © 2012 The Author(s).