INHERITANCE OF ACETYL-COA CARBOXYLASE INHIBITOR RESISTANCE IN WILD OAT (AVENA-FATUA)

Resistance to fenoxaprop-P and other aryloxyphenoxypropionate and cycl ohexanedione herbicides in the wild oat population, UM1, is controlled by a single, partially dominant, nuclear gene, In arriving at this co nclusion, parents, F-1 hybrids, and F-2 plants derived from reciprocal crosses between UM1 and a susceptible wild oat line, UM5, were treate d with fenoxaprop-P over a wide range of dosages, Based on these exper iments, a dosage of 400 g al ha(-1) fenoxaprop-P was selected to discr iminate between three response types, At this dosage, susceptible plan ts were killed and resistant plants were unaffected, whereas plants ch aracterized as intermediate in response were injured but recovered, Tr eated F-2 plants segregated in a 1:2:1 (R, I, S) ratio, indicative of single nuclear gene inheritance, This was confirmed by selfing F-2 pla nts and screening several F-3 families, Families derived from intermed iate F-2 plants segregated for the three characteristic response types , whereas those derived from resistant F-2 plants were uniformly resis tant, Chi-square analysis indicated the F-2 Segregation ratios fit tho se expected for a single partially dominant nuclear gene system, In ad dition, F-2 populations from both crosses were screened with a mixture of fenoxaprop-P and sethoxydim, The dosages of both herbicides (150 g al ha(-1) fenoxaprop-P and 100 g ha(-1) sethoxydim) were sufficient t o control only susceptible plants. Treated F-2 populations segregated in a 3:1 (R:S) pattern, thereby confirming that resistance to the two chemically unrelated herbicides results from the same gene alteration.