Domesticated tetraploid oat Avena magna Murph. et Terr. and A. murphyi Ladiz. and their potential use in the improvement of moroccan hexaploid oat cultivars of A. sativa

In Morocco, oat is a relatively new introduced crop during the 1920s. The area occupied by oat cultivation is extending annually and reaches 70 000 ha. Oat grows in favorable rainfed area in pure stands or as mixture with vetch fod. The hexaploid oat A. sativa (2n = 6x = 42) is the cultivated species of oat. The National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) has registered 14 cultivars of A. sativa released from introduced material. In order to improve this material for quality and disease resistance but also to extend oat crop to semi arid area characterized by high temperatures and drought, we initiate a new breeding program using two tetraploid oat species A. magna Murphy et Terrel and A. murphyi Ladizinsky (2n = 4x = 28). These two endemic species are of great economic value, since they have high seed groat protein content (more than 20 %), resistance to diseases and adaptability to the local edaphic and climate conditions. These species were used in interspecific crosses firstly, to improve the hexaploid Moroccan cultivars quality and secondly, to domesticate the tetraploid wild species. Breeding program is currently on F6 generation for both the domesticated tertraploids and the improved hexaploid cultivars.