Abstract
High-yielding capacity of the modern barley varieties is mostly dependent on the sources of semi-dwarfness associated with the sdw1/denso locus. The objective of the study was to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with the plant height and yield potential of barley recombinant inbred lines (RILs) grown under various soil moisture regimes. The plant material was developed from a hybrid between the Maresi (European cv.) and CamB (Syrian cv.). A total of 103 QTLs affecting analysed traits were detected and 36 of them showed stable effects over environments. In total, ten QTLs were found to be significant only under water shortage conditions. Nine QTLs affecting the length of main stem were detected on 2H-6H chromosomes. In four of the detected QTLs, alleles contributed by Maresi had negative effects on that trait, the most significant being the QLSt-3H.1-1 in the 3H.1 linkage group. The close linkage between QTLs identified around the sdw1/denso locus, with positive alleles contributed by Maresi, indicates that the semi-dwarf cv. Maresi could serve as a donor of favourable traits resulting in grain yield improvement, also under water scarcity. Molecular analyses revealed that the Syrian cv. also contributed alleles which increased the yield potential. Available barley resources of genomic annotations were employed to the biological interpretation of detected QTLs. This approach revealed 26 over-represented Gene Ontology terms. In the projected support intervals of QGWSl-5H.3-2 and QLSt-5H.3 on the chromosome 5H, four genes annotated to ‘response to stress’ were found. It suggests that these QTL-regions may be involved in a response of plant to a wide range of environmental disturbances.
Highlights
Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the first crops to be domesticated and currently is the fourth most important cereal, covering approximately 10 % of the worldwide acreage of cereals (FAOSTAT 2013).The spring barley is characterized by a wide range of adaptation to various conditions—it is cultivated in temperate climate with sufficient rainfall as well as in marginal environments with intensified occurrence of drought (Ceccarelli 1994)
The close linkage between QTLs identified around the sdw1/denso locus, with positive alleles contributed by Maresi, indicates that the semi-dwarf cv
A detailed protocol of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) genotyping by simple sequence repeat (SSR) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers as well as a genetic map construction based on the MCam population and two other bi-parental RIL populations was described by Mikołajczak et al (2016)
Summary
Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the first crops to be domesticated and currently is the fourth most important cereal, covering approximately 10 % of the worldwide acreage of cereals (FAOSTAT 2013).The spring barley is characterized by a wide range of adaptation to various conditions—it is cultivated in temperate climate with sufficient rainfall as well as in marginal environments with intensified occurrence of drought (Ceccarelli 1994). It is better adapted to variable water availabilities than other cereals, drought is one of the major environmental stresses constraining its growth and productivity (López–Castañeda and Richards 1994; Yordanov et al 2000; Araus et al 2002; Forster et al 2004; Ozturk and Aydin 2004; Szira et al 2008; Anjum et al 2011; Rahdari and Hoseini 2012). Drought escape is a life cycle adjustment by a rapid growth and early maturation to avoid the late season stress (Blum 2005; Franks et al 2007). This strategy mainly relates to plants grown in arid or semi-arid areas with regular water deficits. Due to an acceleration of the grain filling and ripening, a significant yield reductions may occur (Desclaux and Roumet 1996)
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