Morphological and agronomic variation in transgenic tritordeum lines grownin the field

Progenies produced by self-pollinating transgenic tritordeum plants contain ing the beta-glucuronidase (uidA) and neomycin phosphotransferase (neo) gen es were grown under field conditions at the Instituto de Agricultura Sosten ible, Cordoba, Spain. Various morphological and agronomic traits were studi ed in the transgenic plants and compared with plants from two controls, one derived from non-transformed tissue cultures and another one derived from standard seeds. Significant differences between transgenic lines and contro ls were detected in both trials. Transgenic lines with simple integration p atterns did not appear to be conspicuously influenced on their agronomic pe rformance, whereas the line with the most complex pattern of integration cl early performed differently from the controls. Somaclonal variation and phy siological disturbances were observed among the transgenic lines; both were clearly reduced when plants were selected on the basis of their fertility. Aneuploidy was observed which might have contributed to the observed varia tion.