Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Serbian Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Collection during a 40-Year Long Breeding Period

Branislav Dudić,Sanja Mikić,Dragana Trkulja,Lenka Procházková,Vladimir Aćin,Milan Mirosavljević,Vojislava Momčilović,Ljiljana Brbaklić

doi:10.3390/agronomy11010118

Branislav Dudić, Sanja Mikić + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11010118

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Abstract

Determination of genetic diversity and population structure of breeding material is an important prerequisite for discovering novel and valuable alleles aimed at crop improvement. This study’s main objective was to characterize genetic diversity and population structure of a collection representing a 40-year long historical period of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) breeding, using microsatellites, pedigree, and phenotypic data. The set of 90 barley genotypes was phenotyped during three growing seasons and genotyped with 338 polymorphic alleles. The indicators of genetic diversity showed differentiation changes throughout the breeding periods. The population structure discriminated the breeding material into three distinctive groups. The principal coordinate analysis grouped the genotypes according to their growth habit and row type. An analysis of phenotypic variance (ANOVA) showed that almost all investigated traits varied significantly between row types, seasons, and breeding periods. A positive effect on yield progress during the 40-year long breeding period could be partly attributed to breeding for shorter plants, which reduced lodging and thus provided higher yield stability. The breeding material revealed a considerable diversity level based on microsatellite and phenotypic data without a tendency of genetic erosion throughout the breeding history and implied dynamic changes in genetic backgrounds, providing a great gene pool suitable for further barley improvement.

Highlights

Cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the most important crops, ranking as the fourth most produced cereal, after wheat, maize, and rice
Within K = 4, the genotypes mostly originating from France, Germany, and Hungary were separated in a distinct cluster
The shift from later heading and flowering varieties from the first and the second breeding periods towards earlier heading and flowering genotypes from the third period could be interpreted as a strategy to avoid drought [63], which is in the Pannonian Basin and other

Summary

Introduction

Cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the most important crops, ranking as the fourth most produced cereal, after wheat, maize, and rice. It is one of the most adapted crops to an exceptionally wide range of diverse environmental conditions, grown in more than 100 countries worldwide [1]. Unchanged barley production could be a result of a 15% decline in area, offset by moderate yield growth and increased yield variability (http://faostat.fao.org). Some of these trends over Europe may have been caused by recent climate changes. The frequent use of narrow genetic pools in breeding programs could aggravate this phenomenon

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