SOME REMARKS ON THE WORK OF THE 

 SWEDISH GENETIC INSTITUTE IN AKARP 



BY 



H. NILSSON=EHLE 



L UND 



THE SWEDISH INSTITUTE OF GENETICS, FOUNDED 1917-1918 

 in connection with a new professorship of genetics at the University of 

 Lund, is situated in Akarp, near the railway station of the same name, 

 9 km. from Lund, between Lund and Malmo. The institute lies on ground be» 

 longing to the State farm Alnarp, only a few minutes way from the Alnarp 

 Agricultural College. In this way the institute forms a connecting link between 

 the university and the agricultural college, and the experiments and the cultures 

 of the institute are easely demonstrated for students in Lund as well as in Alnarp. 



The purpose of the institute is research in theoretical and applied genetics 

 combined with lectures. Genetics has been made a special subject at the Uni< 

 versity of Lund, and courses leading to a doctor's degree in this subject are 

 offered by the philosophical faculty under the supervision of the professor in genetics. 



The research of the institute is at present limited to plants. The writer 

 continues his former work begun in Svalof, especially with cereals, but also expe« 

 riments with several wild plants are going on. The assistant of the institute, 

 lie. phil. G. TuRESsoN, has at the moment extensive work with such plants, 

 Atriplex and others, under way. 



The writer's work on purely theoretical genetics now embraces researches as 

 to the mode of inheritance of a number of different genetic characters, studies 

 on mutations, coupling and multipe allelomorphs. 



Since 1913 the writer has had very extensive experiments with some charac* 

 teristic mutations in wheat, called speltoid mutations by him. These mutations 

 offer great interest in many respects, especially since their nature of complex* 

 mutations has been almost proven; they involve, in other words, genetic changes 

 of several Mendelian genes simultaneously. The question of multiple allelomorphs 

 is closely connected with these complex^mutations. Furthermore, these mutations 

 have offered great advantage in studying the question of decreased vitality of 

 mutated pollen, of heterogamy, which is probably a form of coupling with sex* 

 genes of the haploid generation, and of somatic segregation. The results of these 

 researches have partly been published (Botaniska Notiser, 1917; Hereditas I, 1920, 

 II, 1921). More than a thousand plots of plants belonging to this investigation 

 series have now been grown in the experimental fields of the institute. 



In barley a number of different chlorophyll^mutations have been found, 

 which have been crossed with each other in order to elucidate the question 

 whether or not the different mutated chlorophyll^genes show independent segre* 

 gation or coupling. This work forms amongst plants an analogue to the American 

 investigations in Drosop/ij7a=mutations. About 250,000 seedsplants of such crossings 

 have hitherto been examined and counted. 



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