Hybridization and selection for improving seed protein in barley.

Hybridization followed by continuous selection of lines of barley from different cross-combinations involving high protein-high lysine genotypes and the agronomically superior strains resulted in breaking the negative correlations between 1000 grain weight and high protein content and high DBC values. The methodology of DBC-Kjeldahl protein adopted in the present study is likely to be useful in identifying high lysine lines. The present study has shown considerable variability with respect to protein content and grain weight and has provided interesting genotypes which can be used in synthesising lines with improved nutritional quality and productivity in barley. The success in breaking the undesirable linkages to factors that impair the endosperm development is due to sufficient genetic variability in the initial breeding material as well as the use of suitable breeding procedures like the full-sib mating in the early segregating generations.

Effect of autopolyploidy on quantity and quality of protein in barley.

The range and mean protein content of autotetraploids of high-lysine Notch-2 mutants of barley were consistently higher than the diploids in C3 and C4 generations of colchicine treated seeds. Amino acid analysis of whole grain meal of diploid Notch-2 and one strain of its autotetraploid revealed differences in the amino acid composition. The proportion of albumin in the diploid and the autotetraploid Notch-2 was higher by 21% and 45% respectively, in comparison to the parent 'N.P. 113', whereas the glutelin fraction was significantly higher in the autotetraploid. The autotetraploid, with increased glutelin and decreased prolamin, showed no increase in lysine. It is possible that the recessive high-lysine gene may be lacking dosage effect, resulting in no increase in lysine in the autotetraploid, whereas protein content, a polygenically controlled trait, is enhanced due to genome duplication.

Effect of the essential oils of garlic and onion on alimentary hyperlipemia.

SUMMARY: The effect of garlic and onion on alimentary hyperlipemia, induced by feeding 100 g butter, has been studied in 10 healthy subjects. The freshly extracted juice of 50 g of garlic or onion, as well as an equivalent amount of their ether-extracted essential oils, was administered randomly on four different days during a one-week period. Garlic and onion have a significant protective action against fat-induced increases in serum cholesterol and plasma fibrinogen and decreases in coagulation time and fibrinolytic activity. The essential oil fraction, which contains all the taste and odour, exactly duplicated the beneficial effects of whole garlic and onion. It is, therefore, concluded that the active principle of garlic and onion is the essential oil, which chemically is a combination of sulphur-containing compounds, mainly allyl propyl disulphide and diallyl disulphide.

The multiple-cluster mutation complex in mutagenesis with higher plants.

After treatment of dry and pre-soaked seeds of barley with gamma-rays, EMS, NEU and EI, the frequency of multiple mutations (multimutations) was higher with EMS and NEU treatment, while cluster mutations appeared in greater numbers following treatment with gamma rays and NEU. Pre-soaking the seeds led to a reduction in the frequency of total mutations, cluster mutations and multimutations. This has been explained as a result of the application of lower doses and the induction of mutations at a relatively later stage in ontogenetic development in the case of pre-soaked seeds.Some new mutation types in barley have been described and some of the old types have been given names representing the mutation characters more precisely.The compound mutation frequency of different seedling mutation types, when taken separately, was found to be independent of the mutagen employed and the stage of treatment. The size of mutated chimeras in M 1 plants, as indicated by the segregation ratio of mutants in M 2, was largest in albina, xantha, chlorina, albina-tigrina, chl-terminalis and eceriferum, and lowest in viridis, viridoalbina etc. This could be expected if the unstable premutations induced by mutagenic treatment are resolved into mutations at different intervals after their initiation, or it can be explained by the induction of dominant mutations, or lethal changes together with visible mutations.