This study aims to distinguish between various Ethiopian durum wheat varieties based on their genetic identity using chemical and morphological characterization of seeds. Combinatorial employment of five chemical tests on seeds showed marked qualitative variation among the test varieties, with high discriminatory potential noted for the standard phenol test, followed by the modified phenol and iodide tests. The modified phenol test was instrumental in further discriminating between the varieties that were not identified using the standard phenol test. Unlike the iodide and phenol tests, the NaOH and KOH tests did not show significant variation among the varieties. These results underscore the efficacy of phenol and iodide tests in differentiating between durum wheat varieties. Although the morphological traits were advantageous in seed characterization, they lacked discriminatory power compared with that of the chemical tests. This study concludes that a single test is inadequate for varietal discrimination; rather, a combination of chemical tests can augment the discriminatory potential.

The objectives of this study were to collect and maintain wild barley accessions and to analyze their phylogenetic relationships among the accessions. Sixty wild barley accessions were collected from Syria (four accessions), Jordan (eight), Afghanistan (six), Iraq (three), Iran (four), Turkey (two), Pakistan (one), Tajikistan (one), Azerbaijan (one), Palestine (fifteen), and unknown area (fifteen). Seeds of the three accessions failed to germinate. Thirty-seven random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) were generated and the phylogenetic relationship of the accessions was analyzed. Large genetic diversity existed among the collections and the collections were classified into 4 groups at a similarity coefficient of about 0.7698. Significant variations were observed within the collections from the same geographical location. The collections have sufficient genetic and morphological diversity for the genetic and phenotyphic analyses of traits associated with tolerance to abiotic stresses such as salt and drought.

Major agronomic and morphological traits of Korean land races of cultivated barley were analyzed. Three hundred sixty-three Korean land races, 69 hull-less and 295 hulled barely, were cultivated at the field of National Honam Agricultural Research Institute at Iksan, Korea. Olbori and Saessalbori were used as control varieties for hulled and hull-less barley, respectively. Traits such as heading date, maturity, plant height and flag leaf length and width were analyzed. Heading date and maturity were variable 22 and 22 days, respectively, among the land races tested. Plant height of land races corresponded to 74 to 174% of that of the control varieties. Flag leaf length and width varied from 87% to 314% and from 57 to 233%, respectively, of that of the control varieties. This result indicates that genetic diversity for agronomic and morphological traits are significantly broad among Korean land races and they could provide valuable genes to improve current elite lines.