Relationship of V, i and L alleles with malting quality of bonneville barley

Abstract

We investigated the effects on barley, Hordeum vulgare , kernel and malt quality of two- vs six-row ( V vs ν ), fertile vs sterile lateral floret ( I vs i ) and lax vs dense spike ( L vs l ) alleles. ‘Bonneville’, CI 7248, ( vvIIll ) is a six-row, club barley, and ‘Compana’ CI 5438 ( VViiLL ) is a two-row, semi-lax barley. The material used was derived from the cross Bonneville ∗ 7/Compana. The eight possible homozygous genotypes of the three loci listed above were studied. Since each of these aleles was likely transferred in a gene block, the effects of these blocks containing the respective alleles were measured on eleven barley kernel and malt quality traits. Grain was produced at twelve widely diverse dryland and irrigated locations in the western United States. Differences among the eight isogenics and the recurrent parent were measured for eight of the eleven quality parameters studied. The two-row allele ( V ) was associated with increased grain protein content, kernel weight, kernel plumpness, diastatic power, alpha-amylase and wort N over the six-row allele (ν) with increases of 2.2%, 13.53 mg, 18.2%, 24.0°L, 0.9 units and 0.07%, respectively. The two-row allele was associated with decreased malt extract (0.84% point) and wort N : malt N ratio (0.6). The lax spike allele ( L ) was associated with reduced kernel weight (1.9 mg), wort N : malt N ratio (0.6), and alpha-amylase activity (0.7 units). The fertile lateral floret allele ( i ) was associated with reduced grain protein content (0.3% point), alpha-amylase (0.63 units) and wort N (0.02% point). Interactions between the V and I alleles were significant for grain protein percent, malt extract, diastatic power and wort N percent.