Wild barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum) has strong grain dormancy, a trait that may enhance its survival in non-cultivated environments; by contrast, cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. vulgare) has weaker dormancy, allowing uniform germination in cultivation. Malting barley cultivars have been bred for especially weak dormancy to optimize their use in malt production. Here, we analyz...

A new cytoplasmic male sterility in barley (Hordeum vulgare s.l.) is described and designated as msm2. The cytoplasm was derived from a selection of the wild progenitor of barley (H. vulgare ssp. spontaneum). This selection, 79BS14-3, originates from the Southern Coastal Plain of Israel. The selection 79BS14-3 has a normal spike fertility in Finland. When 79BS14-3 was crossed by cv. Adorra, the...

W hat can go wrong after an egg is fertilized by sperm from a different species? One of the most intriguing outcomes to the chromosome biologist is uniparental genome elimination. In this phenomenon, one of the parental chromosome sets is completely lost during embryonic cell divisions, creating sterile haploid offspring (1). Uniparental genome elimination occurs in diverse taxa, including seve...

Angiosperm stigmas have long been known to exhibit high levels of peroxidase activity when they are mature and most receptive to pollen but the biological function of stigma peroxidases is not known. A novel stigma-specific class III peroxidase gene, SSP (stigma-specific peroxidase) expressed exclusively in the stigmas of Senecio squalidus L. (Asteraceae) has recently been identified. Expressio...