biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 2:1-18, 1960 | DOI: 10.1007/BF02920693

The heritability of the amylolytic activity in barley

Josef Nečas¹

¹ Genetics Section of the Department of Plant Physiology, Microbiology and Genetics, Charles University, Praha

During investigation of amylase activities as continuously variable biochemical features it was found that they are very sensitive to changes in the intensity of vegetative factors. The results of analysis of variance indicate that these characters not only tend to be inheritable themselves, but also the nature and intensity of their reactions to changes in the agro-ecological factors of the external environment show a similar tendency. The actual expression of these features in individuals belonging to a genetically homogeneous group must be considered as the resultant of all reactions of the realisation process concerned, on stimulatory and inhibitory influences, both internal and external. For the genetical analysis of hybrid groups it is necessary to have the most complete picture possible of this continuous modificability which masks the actual genetical variability.
The results obtained in the present investigation provide evidence of complicated relations involved in the hereditary nature and formation of the features under consideration. In further work on the later generations of reciprocal and back crosses it will be necessary to determine more exactly the relative participation of nuclear and plasmatic components both in the hereditary transmission and in the actual formation of these characters.
The present results, although they are only preliminary, confirm the correctness of the modern view in genetics that genetical analysis should be linked with physiological analysis.

Received: April 25, 1959; Published: March 1, 1960  Show citation