RFLPs in Cultivated Barley and Their Application in the Evaluation of Malting Quality Cultivars

摘要

Molecular markers provide powerful tools for characterizing plant genetic resources for crop improvement purposes. A set of 182 barley cultivars representing six different countries were surveyed for restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) using 45 clones distributed over all seven barley chromosomes. Polymorphism was detected with every clone, by the use of at least one restriction enzyme per clone (referred to as a locus), and up to 12 alleles were detected per RFLP locus. RFLP patterns were compared among different barley groups formed by subdividing the samples on the basis of country of origin, spring or winter growth habit, and two- or six-rowed spikes. The results indicated that genetic differentiation among different geographical groups was more profound than between spring and winter types, followed by differences between two- and six-rowed barley. Application of the RFLP information to the evaluation of genetic variation in barley cultivars from the United Kingdom indicated a significantly reduced level of molecular polymorphism among malting barley, especially among spring malting lines. It was suggested that the incorporation of exotic germplasm may be desirable in malting barley breeding programs in order to reduce the vulnerability of the crop.