Cereal Chem 59:459 - 468.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Grain Shrivelling in Secondary Hexaploid Triticale. II. Morphology of Mature and Developing Grains Related to Grain Shrivelling.

R. J. Pena, P. Nagarajan, and L. S. Bates. Copyright 1982 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Morphological characteristics of plump, medium shrivelled, and highly shrivelled grains of eight secondary hexaploid triticales were examined by scanning electron microscopy. Although enzymatically damaged starch grains were observed in three of the eight triticales, the extent of damage was not considered large enough to cause grain shrivelling. Furthermore, visible-light microscopic examination of developing grains from plump, medium shrivelled, and highly shrivelled seeds of the triticale cultivar Rahum showed that grain shrivelling is more likely to result from failure of endosperm cells to completely fill the endosperm cavity. No evident relationship between grain shrivelling and the number and identity of rye chromosomes was observed.