Investigation of partial sterility in advanced generation, sodium azide-induced lines of spring barley

The partial sterility found in several advanced generation, sodium azide-induced lines of spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) was investigated. Plants of mutant lines were reciprocally crossed with plants of their untreated mother lines. Spike sterility was measured in the selfed offspring of the plants crossed and in F1 and F2 progeny. Pollen sterility and endosperm development were analyzed in the selfed offspring of the plants crossed. Results indicated that the sterility was inherited in the mutant lines and was not caused by translocations, inversions, endosperm lethals, embryo-endosperm lethals, or major gene mutations. Furthermore, the sterility was not cytoplasmically inherited, and was essentially eliminated in the F1 and F2 of crosses between partially sterile lines and their fertile parents. Results suggest that the sterility may be caused by an environmental interaction with deleterious, homozygous recessive, minor gene mutations that were in the heterozygous condition when the mutant lines were originally selected.