Abstract
The effect of Al on the growth of plants derived from the F3 generation of a cross between Al tolerant (Waalt) and Al sensitive (Warigal) wheat cultivars, grown in low ionic strength nutrient solutions, were assessed by a number of methods viz; root length and haematoxylin stain after 3 days exposure to Al and plant top and root yields, and root length and visual assessment for Al damage after 4 weeks growth.
Of these methods haematoxylin stain (3 days) and visual assessment at 4 weeks identified the same plants as being sensitive or tolerant to Al and clearly segregated the 2 populations. Consequently these 2 methods were used as ‘standard’ techniques to determine the ability of the other methods to distinguish between tolerant and sensitive plants.
The ratio of plant top: root yields clearly segregated the 2 populations. The 2 populations could not be clearly distinguished based on plant top or root yields, or on root length either after 3 days or 4 weeks exposure to Al.
Within the population of tolerant plants, root length was significantly correlated with root weight (r2=0.86) and top weight (r2=0.71). None of these relationships were significant for the population of sensitive plants.
These techniques were applied in a number of separate experiments on the F2 and F3 populations from a Waalt × Warigal cross. The results indicate that Al tolerance in wheat is inherited by a single gene and that this gene has incomplete dominance.
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Wheeler, D.M., Edmeades, D.C., Christie, R.A. et al. Comparison of techniques for determining the effect of aluminium on the growth of, and the inheritance of aluminium tolerance in wheat. Plant Soil 146, 1–8 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00011989
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00011989