ABSTRACT
The primitive domesticated and wild gene pools of Avena are relatively underutilized resources for improving the four cultivated oat species: the common oat (A. sativa L., 2n=6x=42), the red oat (A. byzantina C.Koch, 2n=6x=42), the Ethiopian oat (A. abyssinica Hochst., 2n=4x=28), and the gray oat (A. strigosa Schreb., 2n=2x=14). This can be attributed to three main factors. First, oats are declining in economic importance. Second, oat research has attracted relatively little funding. Last, Avena has proven more recalcitrant to interspecies gene exchange than the cereals of the Triticeae (including wheat, durum, barley, and rye), primarily due to postzygotic sterility barriers. We will demonstrate in this chapter that although these introgression barriers are considerable, the potential payoffs are great.
