Identification of marker-trait associations in the German winter barley breeding gene pool (Hordeum vulgare L.)

A genome-wide association mapping approach for grain yield and traits of high agronomic relevance was carried out on basis of a set of 61 six-rowed and 48 two-rowed German winter barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivars representing breeding progress in the period 1959–2003. Extensive phenotyping was conducted in field trials carried out at 12 locations in 3 years. Heritability was estimated at between 0.45 for grain yield and 0.94 for grains per spike. By using the Illumina Golden Gate Bead Array technology, 833 single nucleotide polymorphisms with an allele frequency higher than 5% were obtained. Linkage disequilibrium on the whole genome extends to 7.35 cM. Based on a mixed linear model approach taking into account the population structure estimated on the basis of 72 simple sequence repeat markers covering the whole barley genome, 91 significant marker-trait associations were detected, corresponding to 48 different genomic regions.