QTL Analysis of Morphologic Traits in Doubled Haploid Population of Barley

Improving the drought tolerance of barley varieties through the integrated efforts of plant biotechnology and conventional breeding is an important objective in barley breeding. One hundred and fifty eight doubled haploid lines of barley were mapped with 50 SSR and 93 AFLP markers. Agronomic traits such as early growth vigor, plant height, peduncle length, extrude of spike from flag leaf, spike length and kernel per spike were evaluated at ICARDA research stations, Tel Hadya and Breda, during 1382-1383. Genetic correlation between grain yield and considered traits suggested that important traits for high yield in both stations were rapid early growth, short plant height, more extrude of spike from flag leaf, and more kernel per spike. But peduncle length exhibited a different roles in both environments. For plant height, eight Atlas on chromosomes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 were identified in Tel Hadya and Breda. Two of these QTLs were shown co-located with peduncle length QTLs. The QTLs which is linked with Bmag13 marker on chromosome 2, explained 42 percent of phenotypic variation for kernel per spike in Tel Hadya. Identification of these QTLs for agronomic traits is the first step to analyse and dissect more complex characters for barley adaptation to drought stress conditions.