Morphological and agronomic variation in transgenic tritordeum lines grown in the field

Progenies produced by self-pollinating transgenic tritordeum plants containing the beta-glucuronidase (uidA) and neomycin phosphotransferase (neo) genes were grown under field conditions at the Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible, Cordoba, Spain. Various morphological and agronomic traits were studied 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 controls were detected in both trials. Transgenic lines with simple integration patterns did not appear to be conspicuously influenced on their agronomic performance, whereas the line with the most complex pattern of integration clearly performed differently from the controls. Somaclonal variation and physiological 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 variation.