Identification of Barley Varieties Used in Beer Production by Microsatellite DNA Markers

Abstract

Microsatellite DNA (or simple sequence repeat [SSR]) markers were used in this study for the identification of barley varieties. Seventeen SSRs were selected from a representative, highly informative genotyping set of barley SSRs. These SSRs detected polymorphism among 17 barley varieties imported by Tsingtao Brewery Co. Ltd. and used in its beer production. The number of alleles at different loci varied from two to five. Of 17 varieties, seven could be distinguished from each other and from the remaining varieties using specific alleles. As an example, the loci Bmag0125, Bmag0120, HVM62, and Bmag0353 in combination were able to distinguish all barley varieties tested. An allele-based retrieval system was developed for the 17 barley varieties based on these four SSRs.