Inheritance and QTL Mapping of Yielld and some Agronomical Traits in Barley

In this study, an F2:3 population derived from the cross between Hiberna and Pfyner was used to analyze the inheritance of yield and its components in barley by generation mean analysis and to map the corresponding QTLs (quantitative trait loci) by microsatellite markers. Generation mean analysis suggested that both additive and dominance effects were important for most of the traits evaluated, but dominance and non-allelic interaction had a more pronounced effect for days to maturity, number of grains per spike, spike length and plant height. The highest heritability was obtained for number of tillers, indicating that this trait is controlled by additive effects. The additive effects played major role in the inheritance of grain yield per plant, since heritability of this trait was low. The linkage map constructed by 159 microsatellite markers covered a total length of about 1030.5 cM. Using the method of composite interval mapping 2, 4, 2, 4, 1, 4 and 7 QTLs were detected for days to maturity, number of tillers, 1000-grain weight, plant height, spike length, number of grains per spike and grain yield, respectively. Ten QTLs had corresponding occurrences with the QTLs reported earlier, indicating that these QTLs are stable across genetic backgrounds. The results of this study also showed that, grain yield per plant controls with several minor genes.