Abstract
Malting quality is an important trait in breeding barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). It requires elaborate, expensive phenotyping, which involves micro-malting experiments. Although there is abundant historical information available for different cultivars in different years and trials, that historical information is not often used in genetic analyses. This study aimed to exploit historical records to assist in identifying genomic regions that affect malting and kernel quality traits in barley. This genome-wide association study utilized information on grain yield and 18 quality traits accumulated over 25 years on 174 European spring and winter barley cultivars combined with diversity array technology markers. Marker-trait associations were tested with a mixed linear model. This model took into account the genetic relatedness between cultivars based on principal components scores obtained from marker information. We detected 140 marker-trait associations. Some of these associations confirmed previously known quantitative trait loci for malting quality (on chromosomes 1H, 2H, and 5H). Other associations were reported for the first time in this study. The genetic correlations between traits are discussed in relation to the chromosomal regions associated with the different traits. This approach is expected to be particularly useful when designing strategies for multiple trait improvements.
Highlights
Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is a major cereal crop in Europe
Phenotypic data analysis Based on the available historical data, we obtained best linear unbiased estimators (BLUEs) for grain yield, eight kernel traits, and ten malting quality traits for each cultivar (Table S1)
A large range of variation was observed for most traits, including soluble nitrogen, grain yield (GY), thousand grain weight (TGW), soluble protein (SolP), and saccharification number (VZ45)
Summary
Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is a major cereal crop in Europe. It ranks fourth in worldwide production, after wheat, rice, and maize. It is grown for feed, food, and malting. In Europe, two-rowed spring cultivars are used mainly for malting and brewing; six-rowed winter barleys are predominantly used for food. Depending on the end-use, there are two primary aims in breeding barley: 1) superior food and feed quality with high protein content, and 2) high malting quality with high starch and low protein contents. Improving the malting quality is a central goal in breeding, in addition to improving the yield of barley. The main breeding goals for malting barley are high malting extract, low protein content, good solubility properties, good kernel formation, and low glume content
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