Based on the results of this thesis valuable germplasm of genetically distant oat, possessing desirable agronomic traits can be recommended to breeders for different breeding programs. Utilization of genes from cultivars and wild relatives characterized in this study can lead to improvement of oat cultivars in Ethiopia. For further selection of better aluminium tolerant oat germplasm accessions, multi-location field evaluation should be conducted for cultivar development. Generally, the following recommendations can be given from the results of this study.
Firstly, more extensive collection missions need to be carried out (in order to better represent the genetic diversity present in Ethiopian oat germplasm). Moreover, genetic diversity, population structure and acidity tolerant potency variability should be studied using other powerful molecular markers, like SNPs, and DArT. Moreover, we recommend to undergo genotyping by sequencing and whole genome sequencing to understand deeply.
With the same end objective, the population structure present in the present accession samples should be re-examined with the inclusion of additional accessions from different parts of the country by undertaking new collection missions and all relevant control genotypes for both the genepools.The comparison of the results obtained in acid soil with those obtained in a hydroponic solution demonstrated and screening oat accessions on Al toxicity tolerance with SCAR. Both conditions produced essentially the same responses. Thus, both methods represent ef?cient tools in the identi?cation of genotypes that are tolerant to aluminium in breeding programmes. However, soils with homogeneous concentration of toxic aluminium are not easily found under natural growing conditions, limiting its use in the screening of tolerant genotypes in a large number of segregating populations. Under these conditions, the use of hydroponic solution provides a precise, fast and economical alternative, especially useful for programmes located in regions were aluminium is not present at toxic forms in the soil.
Moreover, the use of hydroponic solution can be a valuable tool for phenotyping large populations derived from lines with different levels of aluminium tolerance. This method can also be applied to molecular mapping of genes and quantitative trait loci associated with this feature in oats, contributing to a better understanding of the tolerance mechanisms to toxic aluminium.The reproductive organ of oats is very small to see with our naked eye because of these simple manual crosses were not effective. Hence, we recommend to repeat the simple crosses using magnifying lenses at conducive environment.
