Barley Progenies from Crosses between Hordeum vulgare (4x) and H. Bulbosum (4x).

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the oldest and most widely cultivated cereal crops in the world. Salinity and drought are critical problems facing productivity of crops around the world. Moreover, intensive cultivation of barley has led to a narrowing of its genetic base. However, traits lost from domestic barley genotypes can still be found in wild species. Consequently, the wild species are a valuable genetic resource for barley breeding programs. Two species were used in this study; five accessions of domestic barley [H. vulgare subsp. spontaneum (2x)], an annual with minor salinity tolerance, and five accessions of bulbous barley [H. bulbosum (4x)], a perennial with high tolerance to salinity. Accessions were obtained from USDA-NPGS. Seedlings of H. vulgare were treated with colchicine to double chromosomes number (2x → 4x). Single direction crosses were made; H. vulgare (4x) ♀ and H. bulbosum (4x) ♂. Immature embryos were rescued to two types of culture media (MS and Gamborg’s B-5 media). Chromosome complement was measured by flow cytometry. Percentage seed set, viable, abnormal, inviable seed and morphological characteristics were measured. Seed set ranged from 6.02 to 54.21%. Normal and abnormal germination of embryos ranged from 2.83 to 22.58% and 2.97 to 17.95%, respectively. MS media was found to be the better medium for most crosses. Most progenies were found to be dihaploids (88.1%); resulting from chromosome elimination of H. bulbosum. Some progenies were mixploid (5.3%), tetraploid (3.27%), and triploid (2.65%). Progenies and their parents varied in most morphological traits such as; flag leaf area (1.5-24.8 cm2), plant height (25- 124.9 cm), tiller number (12-226), spike number (0-153), spikelet number/spike (6.4-38.7), seed number/spike (0-15.4), spike length (4.2-12.5cm), awn length (1.5-15.9cm), and fertility (0-96.5). All genotypes will be screened for saline tolerance at germination and early seedling growth.