Cross prediction studies on spring barley : 1. Estimation of genetical and environmental control of morphological and maturity characters.

The genetical and environmental control of three height characters, two maturity characters and neck length in five barley pair crosses was studied using both F2 triple test cross and model fitting analysis.Significant additive and dominance effects were found for all six characters with some evidence of epistasis for each character. Generally, dominance was incomplete for the height characters but was significantly directional for increased height in those crosses where dwarfing genes were segregating. Variable dominance effects were found for both the maturity characters. Complete dominance was found in three cases, otherwise incomplete dominance was found. Significant directional dominance for earliness was found for both maturity characters in one cross but this was attributed to the presence of a daylength insensitivity factor in one of the parents. Most of the genetic variation for neck length was additive, though some evidence of dominance was found.Broad sense and narrow sense heritability estimates generally were found to be high for the height and maturity characters but low for neck length. It was concluded that early generation selection for height at ear emergence, for final height and for awn emergence was worthwhile. Early generation selection for neck length was not recommended from the results of this study.