Crossability between tritordeum and triticale

Seed set over three years in crosses between three tritordeums used as female parents and four triticale lines, showed that there are significant differences in crossability attributable to both parents and that most of these differences are consistent over the three years. When used as the female parent tritordeum line HT67 had an average seed set of 29.62%, tritordeum line HT9 an average of 12.73%, and tritordeum line HT31 an average of only 6.58% averaged over the four triticales lines used as pollinators. These data show genotype effect that is highly significant (P < 0.001) both for tritordeum and triticale genotypes and highly significant (P < 0.001) female ×year, male × year and female × pollinator interactions. The behaviour of F₁ tritordeum hybrids when crossed with one of the triticale pollinators supports the conclusion that the parents' crossability behaviour is genetically controlled. Analysis of segregation ratio of F₂ hybrids plants from high and low crossability tritordeum genotypes crossed with the same triticale pollinator genotype is consistent with 9:3:3:1 ratio. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.