Multifaceted Analysis of Barley Landraces Collected during Gene Bank Expeditions in Poland at the End of the 20th Century

Abstract

The extensive genetic diversity of crop landraces deposited in gene banks is an important part of future breeding programs. However, in order to exploit this potential, it is necessary both to preserve germplasm and to collect and share a wide range of data on its characteristics and evaluation. The main objective of the presented paper was to evaluate the diversity of spring barley landraces originating from Poland. Historical data from standard field evaluation of agronomic traits, genetic data obtained from Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) analysis and grain morphometric data were used. The analysis showed that groups of hulled and hulls barley accessions were substantially separate. Genetic and grain morphological variation did not show any relationship with eco-geographical conditions in the place of origin. There was also no clear division into forms with two- and six-row ears. The combination of the results of various types of analyzes describing this collection makes us believe that its chances of being used in research and breeding will increase.