Division of Botany, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi-12
Studies on the inheritance of mature plant reaction to black and brown rusts and certain other characters, viz., glume hairiness, glume, awn and grain colour, rudimentary nature of basal spikelets, stem blotching and maturity were carried out in intervarietal crosses of bread wheat (T. aestivum) using two sources of rust resistance, Kentana-Bage X Frontana-Uriquiza (E. 4458) and W. 379 (E. 3236), and Hyb. 38, Hyb. 65, N.P. 824 and N.P. 833 as improved indigenous wheats.
The two exotics behaved differently with regard to the number of pairs of factors concerned in the inheritance. The resistance to black rust of E. 3236 was controlled by two complementary factors whereas only one dominant pair of factors was operative in the cross, N.P. 824 X E. 4458. The field resistance of E. 3236 to brown rust was observed to be controlled by two factor pairs, one of these factors being dominant and the other recessive; while each is capable of giving partial resistance when present singly, they are additive in effect. The field resistance of E. 4458 was monogenic in inheritance.
Stem blotching, found to be due to a dominant allele in E. 4458, was inhibited by a factor in N.P. 824. Rudimentary nature of 3–4 spikelets basal was dominant and was controlled by atleast three pairs of factors. Glume pubescence, glume, awn and grain colour and maturity were inherited on simple Mendelian pattern.
Field resistance to rusts and other characters studied were all inherited independently of each other.
