[Morphological and genetic characteristics of leaf hairiness in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) as analyzed by computer-aided phenotyping].

Computer-aided image processing was used to study the morphology of leaf hairiness in the wheat cultivars Saratovskaya 29 and Golubka, as well as the introgressed strain 102/00i of the cultivar Rodina carrying the hairiness control gene introgressed from Aegilops speltoides. Morphological differences in leaf hairiness were detected and described in detail. The genetic control ofhairiness was studied in two cultivars (Golubka and Saratovskaya 29) with similar hairiness patterns. Crossing these cultivars with the cultivar Rodina showed a monogenic inheritance in the cultivar Golubka and a digenic inheritance in the cultivar Saratovskaya 29, which has a denser hairiness. In the strain 102/00i and the cultivar Golubka, the number of trichomes was positively correlated with their mean length. The cultivar Golubka was used as an example to study the effect of environmental conditions on the formation of hairiness. Plants of these cultivars were found to form more but shorter trichomes.