Validation and deployment of novel genomic regions from wild barley to enhance grain yield and yield components in domesticated barley

Extensive domestication through breeding and selection has resulted in a genetic bottleneck in many crops, including barley. Notwithstanding that genetic gain will continue to be achieved into the future through sophisticated plant breeding programs, pre-breeding research that leads to the development of new germplasm will also underpin substantial improvements in longer-term variety development. Research outcomes from project UOA2001-003RTX-9177976 have validated and pinpointed two wild barley genomic regions from a list of nine regions tested that could lead to enhanced yield. Germplasm carrying these wild barley genomic regions yielded up to 5% more than control varieties. However, the presence of these beneficial genomic regions did not always result in yield improvements, indicating that either linkage drag or other genetic factors influenced yield. This project is proposed to characterise these two genomic regions from wild barley and identify additional genetic factors that contribute to the yield improvement in the germplasm with the best performance identified from the previous project. By developing suitable genetic materials such as Near Isogenic Lines (NIL) and testing these materials in yield trials across multiple environments, the effect of these genomic regions to yield and yield components will be quantified. This will ensure that barley breeders can utilise the materials with confidence and incorporate into breeding programs as parental stocks at their discretion. In providing reasonably adapted germplasm to Australia's barley breeders, this proposed new project will therefore contribute to ensuring that Australian barley growers have enduring profitability longer term.