HYBRIDIZATION AMONG BRAZILIAN OAT (AVENA-SATIVA L) CULTIVARS AND THE WILD OAT AVENA-STERILIS L

Hybrids among Avena sativa (L.) Brazilian cultivars and A. sterilis L. accessions were obtained without in vitro embryo culture. Parental sa mples and their hybrids were investigated by morphological characters of spikelets, meiotic chromosome behaviour and esterase isoenzymes ana lysis. The F-1 hybrids were intermediate to the parental lines for the morphological spikelet characters. The high esterase zymotype affinit y made difficult the diagnostic of the hybrid condition. The hybrids p resented more meiotic irregularities than the parental lines. However, predominant bivalent formation shows that the corresponding chromosom es in A, sativa and A. sterilis are able to pair effectively and shoul d result in the recombination of characters of the two species.