Avena Strigosa Schreb.) Germplasm
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EVALUATION OF BLACK OAT ( AVENA STRIGOSA SCHREB.) GERMPLASM Except where reference is made to the work of others, the work described in this thesis is my own or was done in collaboration with my advisory committee. This thesis does not include proprietary or classified information. ________________________________________ Thomas Antony Certificate of Approval: _________________________ _________________________ David B. Weaver Edzard van Santen, Chair Professor Professor Agronomy and Soils Agronomy and Soils _______________________ _________________________ Andrew J. Price Joe F. Pittman Assistant Professor Interim Dean Agronomy and Soils Graduate School EVALUATION OF BLACK OAT ( AVENA STRIGOSA SCHREB.) GERMPLASM Thomas Antony A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Master of Science Auburn, Alabama December 17, 2007 EVALUATION OF BLACK OAT ( AVENA STRIGOSA SCHREB.) GERMPLASM Thomas Antony Permission is granted to Auburn University to make copies of this thesis at its discretion, upon the request of individuals or institutions and at their expense. The author reserves all publication rights. ___________________________________ Signature of Author ___________________________________ Date of Graduation iii THESIS ABSTRACT EVALUATION OF BLACK OAT ( AVENA STRIGOSA SCHREB.) GERMPLASM Thomas Antony Master of Science, December 17, 2007 (B.S. (Agriculture), Kerala Agricultural University, India, 2002) (B.S. (Botany), Mahatma Gandhi University, India, 1995) 156 Typed Pages Directed by Edzard van Santen Black oat has become an important winter cover crop in subtropical and temperate regions. Originating in the northern parts of Spain and Portugal, black oat cultivation has spread to different parts of the globe. Even though different in ploidy level, diploid black oat has been used in many hexaploid common oat ( A. sativa L.) breeding programs as a donor parent for some desirable characters such as rust resistance. Black oat is an emerging cover crop for the Southeastern US. The only commercially available black oat cultivar in US is ‘SoilSaver’ released by Auburn University and USDA-ARS-NSDL in 2002. Even though SoilSaver is superior for some traits (e.g. maturity and biomass yield), some traits need further improvement. Over 100 black oat accessions are available from the USDA-ARS Small Grains Germplasm Unit at Aberdeen, Idaho, but a detailed study iv of this collection is needed before they can be used in a breeding program. The objective of the study was to evaluate the entire USDA-NPGS black oat germplasm collection in the field for morphological traits and maturity and a subset for biomass and grain yield. We used 103 black oat accessions available from USDA and SoilSaver for the morphology and maturity study and 18 accessions selected based on their relative maturity compared to SoilSaver for plot biomass and grain yield trials. Among the 14 response variables measured, 12 were used for the “Canonical Discriminant Analysis” (CDA) in morphology and maturity study. In CDA the first four canonical variates were responsible for 84 % of the total variation and when plotted the first two axes, the accession CIav 9015 was separated farthest from the rest of the accessions. This accession is extremely early maturing, has short culms but long and broad leaves. So we suspect that it may not belong to Avena strigosa Schreb., but to some other Avena species. Further karyotypic studies may be needed to ascertain our findings in this regard. For the yield trials we compared the biomass and grain yield and test weight of the selected accessions to SoilSaver at a standard seeding rate. None of the tested accessions performed better than SoilSaver at standard seeding rate consistently in all locations. The allelopathy study identified seven accessions having significantly higher radish radicle suppressive ability than SoilSaver. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author is thankful to God for all the blessings He showered upon him. The author would like to express his sincere thanks to Dr. Edzard van Santen for his guidance and encouragement during the course of study. The author also would like to extend his sincere thanks to the members of advisory committee, Dr. David B Weaver and Dr. Andrew J. Price for their help and support. He is also grateful to Dr. Steven L Noffsinger, for his day to day guidance and help in the course of research. The author also would like to acknowledge the helps of Dr. Ludovic J.A. Capo-chichi, Maria Stoll, staff of Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station and student workers who helped him in lab and field and fellow graduate students Reji, Janaki, Lakshmi, Monika and Jessica. Most of all, he would like to express his deep appreciation to his wife Manju for her love, support and encouragement. vi Style manual or journal format used: Handbook and Style Manual of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America Computer software used: Microsoft Office 2003; SAS v.9 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES.............................................................................................................. x LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... xii I. LITERATURE REVIEW Importance of cover crops ...........................................................................1 Classification and Botany ..........................................................................12 Cytogenetics...............................................................................................15 Molecular Markers.....................................................................................21 Breeding Programs.....................................................................................23 References..................................................................................................26 II. MORPHOLOGY AND MATURITY OF BLACK OATS ( Avena strigosa Schreb.) Abstract .....................................................................................................37 Introduction................................................................................................38 Materials and Methods...............................................................................39 Statistical Analysis.....................................................................................41 Results and Discussion ..............................................................................43 viii Summary and Conclusions ........................................................................48 References..................................................................................................50 III. PLOT TRIALS IN BLACK OATS FOR BIOMASS, GRAIN YIELD AND TEST WEIGHT Abstract......................................................................................................69 Introduction................................................................................................70 Materials and Methods...............................................................................71 Statistical Analysis.....................................................................................73 Results and Discussion ..............................................................................74 Conclusions................................................................................................77 References..................................................................................................79 IV. ALLELOPATHY OF BLACK OAT ACCESSIONS Abstract....................................................................................................111 Introduction..............................................................................................112 Materials and Methods.............................................................................113 Results and Discussion ............................................................................114 References................................................................................................115 V. APPENDIX.................................................................................................................118 ix LIST OF TABLES Table 2-1: Materials used for the morphology and maturity study ...............................53 Table 2-2: Response variables studied...........................................................................59 Table 2-3: Response variables studied and their range..................................................60 Table 2-4: Loading of Canonical Discriminant Analysis (CDA) ..................................61 Table 2-5: Variance analysis of the traits identified by canonical discriminant analysis .........................................................................................................62 Table 2-6: Traits with high correlation to CAN1 among different accessions..............63 Table 2-7: Traits with high correlation to CAN 2 among different accessions.............64 Table 2-8: Traits with high correlation to CAN 3 among different accessions.............65 Table 2-9: Traits with high correlation to CAN 4 among different accessions.............66 Table 3-1: Materials used for the Biomass and grain yield studies ...............................81 Table 3-2: Variance analysis of the biomass, grain yield and test weight of 2004-05 studies ............................................................................................82