Variation and Heritability of Barley Forage Quality Traits Studied

The forage quality of barley is directly related to animal performance because it defines how the forage is efficiently converted into animal products. Forage quality traits are not yet widely explored by breeders, and therefore Lisa Surber of Montana State University and other researchers conducted the study entitled Mapping quantitative trait loci controlling variation in forage quality traits in barley published in the Springerlink journal.

In their study, they evaluated the variation in forage quality characteristics, identified the quantitative trait loci for those traits, and determined if the variation in traits is heritable. Steptoe x Morex doubled haploid barley mapping population were grown in two years of trails under irrigated environment. The forage quality traits were investigated two stages-at the time of budding (anthesis) and when the forage yield is the highest. At the time of budding, 32 QTLs were identified, while 10 QTLs during the peak forage yield stage. During anthesis, the forage traits were moderately to highly heritable, but weakly heritable at peak forage stage. This implies that the selection development of the forage quality traits will be efficient during the early stages of maturity. The QTLs identified will be used to enhance forage quality through marker-assisted selection.

Read the abstract at http://www.springerlink.com/content/01632620w07u3607/?p=387321813b7c493bbff7dcce5e30ee11&pi=1.