Genetic and developmental analysis of pre-anthesis phases in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

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In cereal breeding, optimal adaptation to a given environment and subsequently high yield potential is mainly determined by the time of flowering. Developmentally, time to flowering (or pre-anthesis development) can be divided into three phases: the leaf initiation (LI) phase, the spikelet initiation (SI) phase, and the spikelet growth (SG) phase. The length of each phase can vary depending on environmental conditions (temperature and photoperiod) and contributes independently towards final time to flowering and subsequently yield. During the proposed project we will (i) perform detailed phenotypic analyses of 212 spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) genotypes for differences in their pre-anthesis development regarding length of the LI, SI and SG phases, (ii) use genome-wide marker-trait associations for the identification of QTL for the length of individual pre-anthesis phases, and (iii) utilize collinearity between barley, rice, Sorghum, and Brachypodium genomic sequences for mapping and sequencing of deduced candidate genes underlying QTL for individual phases in 212 barley genotypes. This would be the first association/QTL study related to the pre-anthesis development in barley or any other cereal crop. QTL/genes involved in early spike development will make an important contribution to future fine-tuning of flowering time in small grain cereal crops by providing a better understanding of the developmental genetic processes underlying heading time in barley and other grasses.