Production
Barley is an important agricultural commodity in Washington State and was ranked 14th in 1997 among the top 40 commodities produced in the state. Barley is the 3rd most important field crop behind wheat and hay. Washington ranked 4th among states in barley production in 1998. Barley production in Washington was about 34 million bushels from 530,000 acres seeded in 1998. The average statewide yield for 1998 was 65 bu/a primarily from dryland production. Baronesse, planted on 69% of the state's barley acreage was the leading cultivar in 1998. Malting types were planted on about 8% of the acreage (about 40,000 acres), and winter types on about 1%. The recommended malting types grown in rank order were Harrington, Morex, Foster, and Crest. There is much greater potential for malting barley production in Washington than is realized. The gap between feed and malting types has primarily been due to the level of industry activity in the state and the dominance of one feed cultivar (currently Baronesse, previously Steptoe).
Breeding Program Highlights
New Varieties
The latest releases from the Barley Improvement Program were two new spring barley cultivars in 1997: 'Bear', a two-row hulless type and 'Washford', a six-row hooded hay type.
Bear -- A New Two-Row Spring Hulless Barley. Bear yields well relative to other hulless cultivars in eastern Washington and northern and southern Idaho. The test weight of Bear has ranged from 57 to 60 lb/bu. Nutritional quality of Bear is very good based on starter pigs, mobile nylon bag technique, and in vitro trials. It is expected to be used for livestock feed and potentially for human food.
Washford - A New Six-Row Spring Forage (hooded) Barley. Harvested at the grain soft-dough stage, Washford produced 15% more hay and 22% more seed than the old standard, Belford . Washford is shorter than Belford by 8% and has greater lodging resistance. All agronomic data are averages over 6 years of tests at Pullman. Washford had the highest hay yield at four of the eight 1996 Montana/Wyoming locations and was equal to the highest yielder at two additional locations. Few disease symptoms have been noted on the forage barleys. However, Washford is susceptible to barley stripe rust caused by Puccinia sriiformis f. sp. hordei and has shown some susceptibility to loose smut caused by Ustilago nuda. There is limited quality data, but appears to be comparable to Belford in feed value. Washford is expected to be used primarily for hay, but also other forage uses for ruminant livestock. It should supplant Belford.
Preliminary seed increase will commence summer of 1999 of the two-row spring covered line WA9504-94. The decision to release this line will be made early in 2000.
WA9504-94 – A New Two-Row Spring Barley. It is a selection from the cross WA7190-86/Maresi. Maresi is a European two-row malting type. WA7190-90 is from the cross: WA10698-76 (Klages/WA8189-69) / WA8517-74 (Piroline Mutant/Valticky Mutant). WA9504-94 has wide adaptation in eastern Washington, high malting quality, and a moderately high level of resistance or tolerance to barley stripe rust (BSR) based on tests in Bolivia, Mexico, and western and eastern Washington State. It is expected to compete better in eastern Washington than other BSR resistance cultivars recently released compared to high yielding BSR susceptible feed cultivars such as Baronesse.
Pest Resistance
While yield and grain quality are always important selection criteria, pest resistance is moving up in priority. Crossing, backcrossing, screening and selection for Russian wheat aphid, barley stripe rust and soil borne pathogen resistance are underway. The Russia wheat aphid is a relatively new pest in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and has the potential to inflict serious damage to the barley crop. Reaction screening is carried out by Do Mornhinweg at the USDA-ARS Insect Laboratory at Stillwater, Oklahoma. RWA resistant lines were in field tests in 1998. Barley stripe rust (BSR) is a new disease to the PNW and little resistance exists in currently grown barley cultivars. We have had germplasm screened for barley strip rust reaction the past several years in Bolivia, Texas, Colorado, and Washington through the direct efforts of Darrell Wesenberg’s and Bill Brown’s programs and Rollie Line. Expanded field testing of BSR resistant lives began in 1997. There appears to be good resistance in a number of WSU breeding lines. Soil borne pathogens probably affect barley production more than we realize. An effort was initiation in 1994 to screen for reaction to soil borne pathogens in the field and growth chamber with Jim Cook. Barley cultivars and breeding lines have been identified with resistance to Rhizoctonia solani for the first time. Relatively simple inheritance of resistance is indicated which should facilitate breeding for resistance to this soil borne pathogen.
Application of Biotechnology
Collaboration in the North American Barley Genome Mapping Project involves work on several fronts. The first comprehensive map developed from Steptoe/Morex is being applied to quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis and molecular marker assisted selection relevant to cultivar development. We are verifying QTL identified and developing molecular marker assisted selection strategies for use in the breeding program. Initially, we are concentrating on the dormancy trait and yield from Steptoe, several malting quality traits from Morex, and Rhizoctonia resistance from identified germplasm sources. Mapping populations from the Harrington/TR306 and Harrington/Morex crosses are also being evaluated. The incorporation of yield QTL from Baronesse and barley stripe rust QTL from Orca into Harrington and the incorporation of Steptoe yield QTL into Morex are collaborative projects with Andy Kleinhofs. The availability of a detailed genome map allows us for the first time to begin to understand the genetics of complex economically important agronomic (yield, lodging, maturity) and quality (feed, kernel, malting) traits through QTL analysis. With the identification and location of specific genes, marker-assisted selection strategies can be developed to allow more directed breeding of these important economic traits.
Collaboration in breeding proanthocyanidin-free barley and transformation of barley with a heat-stable beta-glucanase (brewing and feed quality traits) is underway with Diter von Wettstein. The transformation project will see transformed plants in the field for the fourth year in 1999. The proanthocyanidin-free barley project has been a long-time collaboration. A boost to the project occurred with the induction and incorporation of pigmented "pant" mutants (vs anthocyaninin-free types) in the breeding program. Newer breeding lines of 6- and 2-row pant types have a much better combination of quality and agronomic traits than previously.
WSU Barley Program Personnel and Collaborators
S. E. Ullrich, Professor and Agronomist, Project Leader; A. Kleinhofs, Professor/Agronomist, Collaborator, molecular genetics and breeding, WSU; D. von Wettstein, R.A. Nilan Distinguished Barley Professor, Collaborator, proanthocyanidin-free barley, transformation, WSU; V. A. Jitkov, Breeding Field Research Associate; J. A. Clancy, Research Technologist III, in charge of the barley and malt quality lab with partial support from AMBA; J. S. Cochran, Research Technologist II, working on the proanthocyanidin-free and transformation barley projects; F. Han, Post Doctorate Fellow, working on QTL analysis, mapping and molecular marker assisted selection (left for permanent position10/98); J. Zale, Post Doctorate Fellow, working on QTL analysis and mapping; W. Gao, Ph.D. Graduate Research Assistant working on QTL analysis and mapping.
Additional cooperative efforts occur with the following scientists: J. A. Froseth - swine nutrition, WSU; R. F. Line - barley stripe rust, USDA-ARS, WSU; R. J. Cook - root diseases, WSU; F.L. Young, K.K. Kidwell-adaptation to direct drilling, USDA-ARS, and WSU, respectively; A. F. Cook - spring regional nurseries, USDA-ARS, Aberdeen, ID; D. M. Wesenberg - winter regional nursery, barley stripe rust, QTL validation, germplasm exchange, USDA-ARS, Aberdeen, ID; P. M. Hayes - QTL validation, germplasm exchange, OSU, Corvallis, OR; B. L. Jones - malting quality analyses, USDA-ARS, Madison, WI; D. W. Mornhinweg - Russian wheat aphid, USDA-ARS, Stillwater, OK; I. Romagosa- genetic studies of barley adaptation and quality and breeding hulless barley, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain; G. Arias- breeding and malting quality, EMBRAPA, Passo Fundo, R.S., Brazil; R. Waugh, Scottish Crop Research Institute, Scotland; as well as a number of others in terms of scientific and germplasm exchanges.
1997-98 Relevant Publications
Nedel, J.L., S.E. Ullrich, and W.L. Pan. 1997. Nitrogen use by standard height and semi-dwarf barley isotypes. Pesq. Agropec. Bras., Brasilia 32 (2):147-153.
Ullrich S.E., F. Han, and B.L. Jones. 1997. Genetic complexiy of the malt extract trait in six-row spring barley suggested by QTL analysis. J. Am. Soc. Brew. Chemists 55:1-4.
Nedel. J.L., S.E. Ullrich, and W.L. Pan. 1997. Dry matter and nitrogen accumulation by standard height and semi-dwarf barley isotypes. Pesq. Agropec. Bras., Brasilia 32:155-164.
Han, F., A. Kleinhofs, A. Kilian, and S.E. Ullrich. 1997. Cloning and mapping of a putatuive barley NADPH HC-toxin reductase. Molecular Plant-Micoble Interaction 10:234-239.
Ullrich, S.E. 1997. Barley improvement: An evolutionary perspective. Chapter 9. p 165-192. In M.S. Kang (ed.). Crop improvement for the 21st century. Research Signpost, Trivandrum, India.
Han, F., S.E. Ullrich, A. Kleinhofs, B.L. Jones, P.M. Hayes, and D.M. Wesenberg. 1997. Fine structure mapping of the barley chromosome 1 centromere region containing malting quality QTL. Theor. Appl. Genet. 95:903-910.
Han, F., I. Romagosa, S.E. Ullrich, B. Jones, P.M. Hayes, and D.M. Wesenberg. 1997. Molecular marker assisted selection for malting quality traits in barley. Molecular Breeding 3:427-437.
Ullrich, S.E., A. Kleinhofs, L.Hou, and B.L. Jones. 1998. Application of in vitro culture techniques to barley (Hordeum vulgare) improvement. J. Appl. Genet. 39:49-58.
Spaner, D., L.P. Shugar, T.M. Choo, I. Falak, K.G. Briggs, W.G. Legge, D.E. Falk, S.E. Ullrich, N.A. Tinker, B.J. Steffenson, and D.E. Mather. 1998. Mapping of disease resistance loci in barley based on visual assessment of naturally occurring symptoms. Crop Sci. 38:843-850.
Han, F., A. Kleinhofs, S.E. Ullrich, A. Kilian, M. Yano, and T. Sasaki. 1998. Synteny with rice: Analysis of barley malting quality QTL and rpg4 chromosome regions. Genome 41:373-380.
Ullrich, S.E.* 1998. Genomics and malting quality of barley: a North American Perspective. Barley Workshop. Plant & Animal Genome VI International Conference (Jan. 18-22, San Diego). Final Program and Abstracts Guide, p 52.
Ullrich, S.E.*, F. Han, and J.A. Clancy. 1998. Comparative mapping of beta-amylase activity loci among three barley crosses. Plant & Animal Genome VI International Conference (Jan. 18-22, San Diego). Final Program and Abstracts Guide, p 125.
Ullrich, S.E.*, F. Han, J.A. Clancy, and I. Romagosa. 1998. Genetic analysis of a major barley seed dormancy QTL. 1998 Annual Meeting Abstracts. CSSA 43:78.