Genetics and Improvement of Barley Malt Quality
Genetics and Improvement of Barley Malt Quality presents up-to-date developments in barley production and breeding. The book is divided into nine chapters, including barley production and consumption, germplasm and utilization, chemical composition, prote
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Barley Germplasm and Utilization
D. F . Sun and X. Gong Huazhong Agricultural University Wuhan, China [email protected]
Germplasm, genetic resources and gene resources are similar glossaries in crop breeding and genetics, which include cultivated plants, wild plants and any other life forms used in crop breeding . Crop breeders utilize selected gene resources for combination of new variations or defined agronomic traits like disease resistance commercial varieties. Novel germplasm are becoming increasingly important for developing crop varieities with high yield, quality and abiotic or biotic resistence . In this respect , original varieties, landraces and in particular, wild relatives of crops have been receiving increasing attention as gene donors. Earlier difficulties of sexual isolation in gene transfer using conventional methods can now be overcome by the development of new biological techniques which also make more distantly related species accessible for gene transfer. Cultivated barley, Hordeum vulgare 1. , one of the major cereals planted in the world, is a founder crop of the Old World Neolithic food production and one of the earliest crops domesticated. It is an important crop , ranking fifth in world crop production. In order of importance, barley is used for animal feed, brewing malts and human food. Barley is a short season, early maturing cereal with high yield potential. It may be found in widely varying environments, including extremes of latitude and altitude where other crops are not adapted. The number of barley germplasm recorded is up to 370,000, the second largest after wheat (von Hintum, 2000). This chapter aims to give a comprehensive overview of the genus Hordeum, relationships of the species, origin and evolution of cultivated barley, and utilization of barley germplasm
2.1 Origin and Evolution of Cultivated Barley
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in breeding programs, including some successful examples and potential for improvement of cultivated barley.
2.1 Origin and Evolution of Cultivated Barley Cultivated barley, H. vulgare, a predominantly self-pollinated diploid crop (2n=14) , including two-rowed and six-rowed barley, belongs to the tribe Triticeae in the grass family, Poaceae. Triticeae is a big plant group which contains economically important cereals, forages and about 350 wild species. Due to great possibilities for interspecific and intergeneric hybridization, all of these are of putative interest as gene donors in breeding.
2.1.1 The Taxonomy of Barley The common temperate annual cereal crops, wheat (Triticum aestivum) , rye (Becale cereale) and triticale, are also placed in this tribe together with several very important perennial forage grasses in many temperate areas of the world, such as Russian wild rye (Psathyrostachys fragilis), the crested wheat grasses (Agropyron cristatum s.l.), Altai wild rye (Leymus angustus) and intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium) . Triticeae is found in most areas of the world, but the major center is in central and southwestern Asia. With the
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