Plant & Animal Genomes XVII Conference

January 10-14, 2009
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Barley Adaptation- From Sattelite View To Microsattelite And Beyond

Sariel Hubner¹ , Mathias Höffken² , Elad Oren¹ , Grit Haseneyer² , Nils Stein² , Andreas Graner² , Karl Schmid³ , Eyal Fridman¹

¹  The R.H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, P.O. Box 12, Rehovot 76100, Israel.

²  Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Corrensstrsse. 3, 06466 Gatersleben, Germany.

³  Department of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), P.O. Box 7080, SE-75007 Uppsala, Sweden

Modern barley (Hordeum vulgare) was domesticated from its wild progenitor, H. spontaneum, ap. 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent. Israel is located between the desert and Mediterranean climate bridging the continents of Africa and Euro-Asia, and poses wide eco-geographical niches in which wild barley has sustainable populations. Natural selection, genetic drift and migrations as well as demographic cohesion enhanced by geographic distances are influencing the proportion of genetic variation within and between these populations. A wide array of a-biotic parameters was incorporated into a multi-data-layer projection on a GIS software for selecting fifty-one tentative populations that represent the diverse sites around Israel in which wild barley grows. Analysis of the individuals’ genotype based on a set of microsattelite markers yielded a similar clustering assignment of the sampling sites using two statistical approaches. Highest probability was found for seven clusters under the Bayesian approach (STRUCTURE analysis). Significant correlation was found between the environmental and genetic distances of the sampling sites and principal component analysis showed that temperature and precipitation variation is associated the most to the genetic clustering, as compared soil attributes. Preliminary phenotype experiments of a core collection derived from this material indicate clear standing variation for environmental responsiveness, including a wide response to vernalization. Genetic approaches for dissecting this genetic variation will be discussed.