Mutation Rates for Enzyme and Morphological Loci in Barley ( HORDEUM VULGARE L.)

Spontaneous mutation rates were estimated by assaying 84,126 seedlings of a highly homozygous barley line (isogenic line 2025) for five enzyme loci. No mutants were observed in 841,260 allele replications. This result excludes, at probability level 0.95, a spontaneous mutation rate larger than 3.56 x 10(-6)/locus/gamete/generation for these enzyme loci. Isogenic line 2025 also was scored for mutants at four loci governing morphological variants. No mutants were observed in 3,386,850 allele replications which indicates that the upper bound for the mutation rate for these loci is 8.85 x 10(-7). It was concluded that, even though spontaneous mutation has been important in creating variability in the barley species at the loci scored, the rate is too low to have much affect on the short-term dynamics of barley populations.