Authors: S Grando M Baum S Ceccarelli A Goodchild F Jaby ElHaramein A Jahoor G Backes
Publish Date: 2005/01/28
Volume: 110, Issue: 4, Pages: 688-695
Abstract
Barley straw is commonly used as animal feed in many developing countries Even a small increase in its nutritive value can have a large impact on animal production and hence on rural livelihood and human nutrition Straw quality is strongly affected by environmental factors and is therefore difficult to improve with empirical breeding The objective of this study was to identify molecular markers to facilitate the improvement of straw quality in barley For this purpose we have used the genetic linkage map that was already developed for recombinant inbred lines RILs of the cross between a Hordeum vulgare cultivar ‘Arta’ and a H spontaneum line H spontaneum 411 covering a total of 890 cM Straw parameters from RILs grown at Tel Hadya and Breda ICARDA’s research stations in 2 years 1996/1997 and 1997/1998 were analyzed by NIRS for predicted nutritional characteristics including neutral detergent fiber acid detergent fiber lignin digestible organic matter in dry matter voluntary intake crude protein and straw morphology the percentage of blades sheaths and stems Localization of QTLs was performed using Windows QTL Cartographer version 20 Seventythree QTLs were identified the majority of which 17 in the driest of the four environments Only six QTLs were identified in two environments in five cases one of the two was the wettest environment This is discussed in relation to the possibility of improving straw quality in favorable environments where yields are higher rather than in dry environments where straw quality is already relatively goodThis research was funded by BMZ by a grant of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and by the grant of the Danish Research Council for Developmental Research project no 90978 We would like to thank Ms Aman Sabbgh for excellent technical support We like to acknowledge the input of Bruce Stone LaTrobe University to initiate the project “Crop Residues in Sustainable Mixed Crop/Livestock Farming Systems” funded by ACIAR project no AS2/1997/098 We are grateful to Dr W Powell Scottish Crop Research Institute for providing barley microsatellite primer sequences even prior to their being published
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