Genomics Approaches to Mining Barley Germplasm Collections

Abstract

Barley has been diversified during the long process of evolution. The genetic diversity that was lost during domestication and crop improvement can be introduced from various collections with extant wild relatives of barley being a particularly rich source. Thousands of diverse accessions of cultivated and wild barley have been collected, preserved in ex situ collections, phenotyped for various traits, genotyped with molecular markers, and catalogued in databases. Such attributes make these collections readily accessible for germplasm mining. High-throughput sequencing methods for assessing intraspecific diversity have become available recently through the implementation of exome sequencing and genotype-by-sequencing in barley. These methods enable the systematic collection of molecular passport data of entire collections to inform genebank management decisions. They can also guide the selection of core collections for further in-depth studies linking phenotype and genotype. Finally, the joint analysis of genetic data and information on collection sites of accession can give insights about the population structure, dispersal, and evolutionary history of the crop.