Determining the malting and agronomic characteristics in malting barley hybrids

This research was carried out to evaluate the hybrids produced among malting barley cultivars in terms of yield and various malt properties. Hybrid seed production and heterosis studies were carried out under field conditions in 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 in Middle Black Sea Transition Region Agricultural Research Institute, and laboratory studies were conducted in 2016 at Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa University Faculty of Agriculture Molecular Biotechnology Laboratory. In this study, hybridizations were performed between Turkey's malting barley varieties Zeynelaga, Aydanhanım, Efes3 and Tokak 157/37 and Canada's malting barley variety Harrington using half diallel hybridization method. Various agronomical and malt traits and heterosis values of these traits were investigated in hybrids and parents. Heterosis values of grain yield ranged from -8.25% to 50.44% in the first year and from -11.84% to 19.49% in the second year. The yield of the hybrids was 5.28% higher in the first year and 3.09% higher in the second year than the parents. In malt extract ratio, which is the most important feature for malt producer, heterosis values of hybrids ranged from -1.78 to 7.61% in the first year and from -4.36 to 6.87% in the second year. Based on the results of this study, Zeynelağa x Aydanhanım and Aydanhanım x Efes3 hybrids were the prominent combinations with high heterosis effects in both agronomic and malting quality characteristics in both years. In addition, the relationship between the genetic distance calculated based on DNA markers (SSR) and heterosis was examined and the possibilities for the use of molecular data to identify the superior hybrid combinations were investigated. The highest genetic distance calculated based on DNA markers was obtained between Harrington and Tokak 157/37 (0.96) and lowest (0.31) between Tokak 157/37 and Efes3 genotypes. It was found that there was no correlation between genetic distance and heterosis rate and genetic distance calculated based on DNA markers did not sufficiently predict the hybrid performance.