No new information about earliness genes has been reported since the last report. No induction of new early maturity mutants has been carried on, and no genetical research project on earliness genes is going on. Also no new publications in this field could be observed. It may be mentioned that the different existing ea and mat genes, the BGS stocks from the Barley Genetic Stock Center, and the stocks from the Nordic Gene Bank (NGB) which have arisen in different gene backgrounds, have been backcrossed to one common background, i.e. the two-rowed cultivar Bowman, by Jerome D. Franckowiak at North Dakota State University, in Fargo. Bowman is a commonly grown, high yielding and non-malting barley in North Dakota and its surroundings, USA. Most of these backcross-derived lines will get incorporated into the Barley Genetic Stock Collection, in Aberdeen, Idaho, in the near future.

The report and information presented in Barley Genetics Newsletter Volume 21:127-129 are valid and up-to-date. But all researchers and plantbreeders in this field are encouraged to submit matters of interest to the coordinator as well. Material of the Swedish earliness genes is available to every research worker, and seeds can be requested at any time.