'Plant Breeding: Sustaining the Future' Abstracts of the XVIth EUCARPIA Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland, 10-14 September 2001 DORMANCY IN A WILD BARLEY (HORDEUM VULGARE SSP. SPONTANEUM) CROSS T.K. VANHALA, P. THOMSON, F. VAN EEUWIJK, P. STAMP Laboratory of Plant Breeding, Department of Plant Sciences, Wageningen University, 6700 AJ Wageningen, The Netherlands

Dormancy has an important part in the ecological adaptation of wild plant species. A cross was made between two wild barley accessions: ‘Ashkelon’ and ‘Mehola’ from Israel. The seeds from Mehola are very highly dormant and need long storage in warm temperatures, while seeds from Ashkelon germinate easily following a short after-ripening period. A linkage map from F₂ was constructed using AFLP and SSR markers. A dormancy study was performed using F₄ seeds. To observe the breaking of dormancy, the seeds were allowed to after-ripen in +40°C. Batches of seeds from each line were germinated six times in 14-day intervals; from day 0 to day 70. The number of germinated seeds was counted for each time period and a QTL analysis was performed.