Avena fatua is an economically detrimental weed found in cereal growing areas worldwide. Knowledge about the variation of dormancy and germination characteristics, as well as of the genetic diversity and structure can provide additional information about different populations within a region. Identification and development of potential indicators or markers of seed germination behavior, would be useful for modelling emergence and seed bank dynamics. This study aimed to describe the initial germination, dormancy, and morphological characteristics of seeds from different Latvian populations of A. fatua and to investigate the genetic structure of local populations. Seed samples from 26 to 41 locations in different regions of Latvia were collected over three years. Seed morphology, initial germination, and the effect of dormancy-breaking treatments were determined. Seeds from 18 Latvian populations with contrasting seed dormancy characteristics were genotyped. Although morphological differences between seeds from different regions were revealed, genetic analysis of the selected populations indicated that the population structure was not related to geographical location, which probably reflects the impact of anthropogenic dispersal of A. fatua seeds. The effect of dormancy-breaking treatments varied between years, between climatic zones and between populations, indicating environmental influences as well as inherited dormancy.

Communicated by Zinta Gaile Differences in biochemical composition in dehulled and

The objectives of the investigation were to identify competitive traits in cereal species in order to contribute to development of a methodology for evaluation of cereal genotypes for their competitive capacity against weeds, which is important for organic breeding aims. The investigation was carried out with spring barley, spring oat, winter triticale and winter wheat genotypes in organic crop rotations in two different locations. Relations between crop traits and weed dry weight were evaluated by Pearson correlation coefficients. The results stressed the significance of some crop traits for cereal competitiveness against weeds for organic breeding purposes: (i) growth habit, canopy height, and crop development rate for spring barley; (ii) crop development rate for spring oats; (iii) winter hardiness and the coefficient of tillering for winter triticale, and (iv) winterhardiness, the coefficient of tillering, the number of productive stems, crop canopy and plant height for winter wheat. It coud be useful to include measurements of crop ground cover for estimating competitiveness of cereal species against weeds

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Cereals are the most widely grown crops in Europe, accounting for 53.8% of total crop area. Today’s farmers are facing serious challenges – climate change, resource scarcity and population growth, which can have a negative impact on the quantity and cost of agricultural production. It is therefore important to focus on the development of cereal breeding programmes and the introduction of new technologies, including High-Throughput phenotyping methods. The aim of this paper was to analyse the recent scientific literature on the current use of ground-based sensors applied in High-Throughput Phenotyping Platforms (HTPPs) for the assessment and analysis of morphological and physiological traits in cereals and for the selection of high-yielding genotypes. This enables the breeder to asses and identify genotypes of interest more quickly and accurately at different stages of plant development and in larger field and laboratory trials than with traditional breeding methods. The paper also provides information on the potential of using ground-based HTPPs, the most important methodological principles in setting up trials and measuring traits to ensure the accuracy of the assessments and the processing and interpretation of the results.