AbstractIn order to investigate the direct and correlated responses to selection for heading date in barley, two F2populations were subjected to four cycles of divergent selection. For each cross, eight populations selected for earliness (from 1E to 4E) and for lateness, (from 1L to 4L) and four unselected populations (1, 2, 3 and 4 SSD) were obtained and than compared together with parental lines. Selection caused a change greater than one day/cycle in Doth directions, and the cumulative responses were ‐5.4 and ‐5,9 days in the direction of earliness, 7.7 and 7,1 days in the opposite direction. Such results suggest that in the two base populations the heading, date is under the control of a polygenic system with prevailing additive effects and a slight directional dominance toward earliness.Early populations showed a reduction of ear moisture and an increase of plant height, ear extrusion, kernel weight and harvest index, whereas late populations showed the opposite changes. Grain yield was linearly reduced by selection for lateness, whereas no substantial change was evidenced in the opposite direction, so that 4E significantly out‐yielded 4L in both cr
展开▼
