II. 6. Changes in adverse relationship between grain weight and protein quality in barley.
H.C. Bansal, I.M. Santha, and S. Bhaskaran, Nuclear Research Laboratory, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-llO 012, India. "R"
The high protein and/or high lysine genotypes of barley, spontaneous or induced, have been found to be associated with lower grain weight leading to reduced yields in comparison to that of the standard varieties. During the past 8 years (1971-1978) attempts have been made at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, to break the negative correlation between grain weight and high protein and/or high lysine content in barley (BGN 6:6-7, 1976). A number of crosses were attempted every year, and the selections were operative in F2 and subsequent generations for better grain type, high protein content and high DBC values. In several cases no success was achieved but the single and double crosses involving high protein - high lysine donors Hiproly, Notch mutants and B1 strain; mutant strain BM 21 and the cultivar Jyoti yielded good results.
Table 1. The range and mean of protein content, DBC
and 1000 grain weight in cultivars, high lysine lines and F4-F7 progenies.
Table 2. Changes in association between protein
quality and grain weight in cultivars, high lysine lines and advanced generations
of barley crosses.
In the year 1978, 344 F4-F7 progenies selected from different cross combinations, 8 cultivars (Himani, RS 6, DL-70, BM 21, NP 113, Jyoti, Ratna, R-16) and 9 high lysine lines (Hiproly, Notch-l, Notch-2, Riso 7, Riso 8, Riso 29, Riso 56, Riso 1508, SV 73608) were analyzed for protein percentage (N x 6.25) by macro-Kjeldahl on Kjeltec System II and for DBC (mg dye bound/g sample) by Udy Protein Analyzer. The data presented in Table 1 show that the means of protein, DBC and 1000 grain weight were increased in the selected progenies as compared to that in the cultivars. In contrast to the earlier study on mutants and the standard varieties (Bansal, 1974) as well as the present investigation on cultivars and high lysine lines, the negative correlations between grain weight and high protein, grain weight and high DBC (Table 2) were broken in the progenies offering a good possibility of developing nutritionally improved strains of barley combined with high grain yields. It has been possible to identify some lines in which high grain weight, high protein and high DBC were combined. The amino acid composition and other components of yield are being investigated in these lines.
Acknowledgment:
The assistance given under the FAO/SIDA/SAREC Project (T.F. INT 112,
SWE) on Improvement of Nutritional Quality in barley and spring wheat is
gratefully acknowledged.
References:
Bansal, H.C. and S. Bhaskaran. 1976. Attempts at combining the yield
and protein quality in barley. BGN 6:6-7.
Bansal, H.C. 1974. Induced variability for protein content and quality in barley. Ind. J. Genetics 34 A:657-661.
