Time-Lapse: Barley Spikelet Development - Comparison of a two-rowed lateral and central spikelet

Original video: https://youtu.be/HVdMp8hAXQ4

Cereals such as maize (Zea mays L.), rice (Oryza sativa L.), wheat (Triticum spp.), and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) are major grass species that feed most of the world’s population. Understanding the genetic regulation of inflorescence (flower-bearing structure) architecture in these cereal crops may shed light on the basic developmental patterning of floral meristems and reveal potential pathways to improve their yield. Barley, along with other major cereal crops (wheat, rye, and triticale) belonging to the Triticeae tribe, possesses a spike-type inflorescence (Ullrich, 2011; Koppolu and Schnurbusch, 2019). In general, a barley spike forms three spikelets on its rachis (inflorescence axis) nodes—one central and two lateral spikelets in an alternating, opposite arrangement (distichous) (Bonnett, 1935; Koppolu and Schnurbusch, 2019; Zwirek et al., 2019). The spikelet, a small/condensed spike, is considered the basic unit of the grass inflorescence (Clifford et al., 1987; Kellogg et al., 2013). A barley spikelet forms a single floret subtended by a pair of glumes. Typically, a barley floret consists of one lemma, one palea, two lodicules, three stamens, and a monocarpellary pistil (i.e. a single carpel) (Waddington et al., 1983; Forster et al., 2007). Based on the fertility of the lateral spikelets/florets, barley is classified into two- and six-rowed spike types. In two-rowed types, the lateral spikelets are smaller (compared with the central spikelets), awnless (extension of the lemma is absent), and sterile, while the central spikelets are bigger, awned, and fertile. Both the lateral and central spikelets are awned and fertile in six-rowed types.

Witness barley development in action! This time-lapse video provides a fascinating look at spikelet development in two-rowed barley. We compare lateral and central spikelets as they grow around week 8 (W8.0), allowing you to observe the subtle yet crucial differences in their development over time.

Keywords: Barley, spikelet, development, time-lapse, lateral spikelet, central spikelet, comparison, plant science.

Citation:

Venkatasubbu Thirulogachandar, Geetha Govind, Götz Hensel, Sandip M Kale, Markus Kuhlmann, Lennart Eschen-Lippold, Twan Rutten, Ravi Koppolu, Jeyaraman Rajaraman, Sudhakar Reddy Palakolanu, Christiane Seiler, Shun Sakuma, Murukarthick Jayakodi, Justin Lee, Jochen Kumlehn, Takao Komatsuda, Thorsten Schnurbusch, Nese Sreenivasulu, HOMEOBOX2, the paralog of SIX-ROWED SPIKE1/HOMEOBOX1, is dispensable for barley spikelet development, Journal of Experimental Botany, Volume 75, Issue 10, 20 May 2024, Pages 2900–2916, https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erae044

Publish on: 15 February 2024

Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 - Creative Commons