Abstract

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) awns contribute to grain yield, but the genetic basis of awn development remains largely unclear. Five barley lines differing in awn traits and row types were used to create four F2 populations. Genetic analyses revealed that four pairs of genes were involved in awn development: A/a (awnless/awned), B/b (awnless/awned), H/h (hooded/straight), and L/l (long/short). Of these four loci, A, H and L functioned on both central rows (CR) and lateral rows (LR) of the barley spikes, while B exhibited effect only on LR. A and B had duplicate effects on LR, and both showed dominant epistasis to loci H and L, whereas H was epistatic to L. Meanwhile, A and B were found to be genetically linked, with a row-type locus V located between them. The genetic distances of A-V and B-V were estimated to be 9.6 and 7.7 cM, respectively. Literature search suggested that A, H and V may correspond to the reported Lks1, Kap1 and Vrs1, respectively, whereas B is a novel gene specifically controlling awn development on LR, designated as Lsa1 for lateral spikelet awnless 1. The only barley homolog of wheat awn inhibitor gene B1, HORVU2Hr1G077570, is a potential candidate of Lsa1.

Highlights

  • Barley (Hordeum vulgare) awns contribute to grain yield, but the genetic basis of awn development remains largely unclear

  • central rows (CR) and lateral rows (LR), while B19 was awnless on both rows (Table 1, Fig. 1A)

  • The F­ 1 was awnless on both CR and LR, indicating that awnless was dominant on both CR and LR (Fig. 1A)

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Summary

Introduction

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) awns contribute to grain yield, but the genetic basis of awn development remains largely unclear. Genetic analyses revealed that four pairs of genes were involved in awn development: A/a (awnless/awned), B/b (awnless/awned), H/h (hooded/straight), and L/l (long/short). Of these four loci, A, H and L functioned on both central rows (CR) and lateral rows (LR) of the barley spikes, while B exhibited effect only on LR. We performed a thorough trait dissection and genetic analysis of four F­ 2 populations with different awn type segregations. Our findings lay a solid foundation for future cloning of the awn-related genes and improve our understanding of the genetic mechanism of awn development in barley

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