Plant, Animal & Microbe Genomes X Conference

January 12-16, 2002
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Workshop: Barley
            

COMPUTER GRAPHICAL MODELLING OF BARLEY (HORDEUM VULGARE L.) MORPHOLOGY AND GENETICS: SIMULATION OF MENDELIAN AND QUANTITATIVE INHERITANCE

¹ Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Dept. Taxonomy, Corrensstr. 3, D-06466 Gatersleben, Germany

² Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Dept. Genebank, Corrensstr. 3, D-06466 Gatersleben, Germany

A computer graphical L-system-model simulating the morphology of the barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) spike is described. The application of different parameter sets to growth and branching rules allows the visual representation of natural variation in spike and vegetative morphology. The model was designed and built within the vlab/cpfg modelling environment (Mech 1998). The ultimate purpose of the model is the prediction and visualisation of phenotypes corresponding to diploid multigenic genotypes, which are composed from lists of alleles designating specified genes (or QTLs). Dominant/superdominant/recessive inheritance is demonstrated with the genes responsible for the number of rows (vrs and int-c), epistatic interaction of genes in the model illustrated using the example of the Kap and the lks2 genes. As an example for the modelling of quantitative inheritance, the traits 'tillering strength' and 'number of grains per ear' are shown. A subset of the model is availablle on the World Wide Web under this address.
The model is based on data derived from 100 lines of the Doubled-Haploid F2 winter barley population W766 (= 'Angora' x W704/137) which were genetically fingerprinted using AFLP, microsatellite and morphological markers. A map was constructed consisting of seven linkage groups corresponding to the seven chromosomes. QTL analyses of morphological and phenological traits revealed a variety of inheritance mechanisms, ranging from strong pleiotropic effects, especially of the sca gene on Chromosome 3H to 'classical' polygenic QTL effects.