Molecular genetic diversity of ICARDA’s worldwide barley landrace collection

The use of barley grain as a whole grain food or food ingredient through the development of various products from improved varieties has increased sharply in developed countries and is linked to health claims. Barley landraces are preferred for making traditional dishes and are conserved in genebanks worldwide. International barley landraces from the collection at ICARDA were assessed for food quality traits and the genetic diversity was investigated using twenty genic- and genomic SSR markers. SNP in several candidate genes for these traits were also assessed. This molecular analysis of food quality traits should allow accelerated use of the germplasm in barley landraces in the development of superior barley varieties for human food use.