Straw‐protein Percentages in Avena sterilis L.¹

Abstract

A group of 334 Avena sterilis L. strains was grown at Ames, Iowa, and measured for groat and straw‐protein percentages and heading date. F3 segregates from five crosses between A. sativa ✕ A. sterilis lines were measured for the same traits.Straw protein for the A. sterilis strains ranged from 5.5 to 14.6%. Three A. sativa lines used as checks had mean percentages from 5.6 to 6.7. Collections from Libya generally had higher levels of straw and groat protein than those from other countries, even though the strain with the highest straw protein, PI 324721, was from Greece.There was a positive correlation between heading date and straw‐protein percentage, but one A. sterilis strain, PI 324774, was early and had 12.1% straw protein. Groat protein and straw protein were uncorrelated for the A. sterilis strains.The inheritance of straw‐protein content probably was due to a small number of segregating effective factor pairs.

Chemical Composition and Nutritive Value of Naked Oats (Avena nuda L.) in Broiler Diets

“…DISCUSSION The present study demonstrates that NO can be used in broiler diets. The results of proximate analyses are in general agreement with those reported for dehulled high protein cultivars of Avena sativa (Robbins et al, 1971;Maruyama et al, 1975;Frey et al, 1975). Our results are contrary to those of Guillaume and Calet (1973) in that naked oats included at 20 to 40% in a corn-soy diet did not depress growth in broilers.…”

“…The avenin content of NO was 9.4% of the total protein, which is considerably lower than the prolamine content of corn. Thus, oats have an advantage over other cereal grains, and have excellent potential for exploitation as a feed grain because strains with protein content as high as 35% have been identified (Frey et al, 1975). Although there is a proportional increase in all the amino acids in high protein oats, results must be interpreted with caution, because availability may be a factor.…”

“…The protein of oats has high biological value, its amino acid composition is constant over a wide range of protein, and the protein content can be raised by genetic manipulation (Robbins et al, 1971;Briggle et al, 1975). Frey et al (1975) examined several varieties of oats and reported that some had more than 30% groat protein. This genetic variability has been exploited in the development of high protein oats (19 to 21%) like Dal and Goodland.…”

Nitrogen utilisation in Libyan strains ofAvena sterilisL. with high groat protein and high straw nitrogen content

“…Therefore, a long period of natural selection for ability to grow at low levels of soil nitrogen may have produced an efficient nitrogen uptake mechanism in these Libyan strains. Such a mechanism would explain the high protein levels observed by Frey et al (1975) when the Libyan strains were grown in soils with high availability of nitrogen.…”