Polymorphism of oat kernel size and shape in several Canadian oat cultivars

This study used digital image analysis to quantify variation of morphological characteristics of oat kernels. Ten Canadian oat varieties grown in 1984 and 1985 at five and four locations, respectively, were examined. Statistically significant differences in polymorphism among varieties collected from the same location were observed. It appeared that the genetic diversity of all analyzed varieties is quite high, and results from a broad range of kernel sizes are evenly distributed within population. The environment has little effect on the polymorphism of seed shape. The same varieties grown in different locations appeared to have almost the same diversity index, and the aspect ratio (AR) depends primarily on the genetic structure of the population. However, the diversity index of AR for each variety calculated over all locations appeared to be almost the same. Key words: Oat, Avena sativa, digital image analysis, size and shape