Summary
An investigation of somatic variation in 10 plants of Lolium perenne, using a two-stage cloning process followed by two further cycles of vegetative propagation, has revealed that persistent differences in tiller number and plant height may arise at the time of the initial cloning. These effects were dependent upon the age of the clone and its past vegetative history. Transmissibility values obtained indicate that up to 77 per cent of the ramet variation for plant height is transmittable over propagation cycles. The implications of these findings with regard to clonal evaluation in forage crop breeding and the maintenance of basic plants of a synthetic variety are briefly considered.
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Shimamoto, Y., Hayward, M. Somatic variation in Lolium perenne. Heredity 34, 225–230 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1975.25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1975.25
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