Agro-morphological and molecular characterization of wild barley populations and some barley cultivars and determining their quality characteristics and tolerances to the zinc deficiency

In this study, 216 genotypes selected from the 16 populations of wild barley collected from the East-Mediterranean and Southeastern Anatolian Regions of Turkey as well as 26 cultivars of barley were morphologically and molecularly characterized. In addition, chemical characteristics and tolerances to the zinc deficiency of some selected genotypes of wild barley and barley cultivars were determined. The results of the morphological determinations showed that there were significant genetic variations among both wild barley genotypes and barley cultivars. both wild barley genotypes and barley cultivars showed genetic variations in crude protein ratio. wild barley genotypes were significantly inferior in hectoliter weight and 1000 seeds weight as compared with the barley cultivars. It was determined that some of the wild barley genotypes were tolerant to zinc deficiency but some ones were not. The barley cultivars tested were generally sensitive to the zinc deficiency. The results of the molecular analyses made by using 45 primer pairs of SSR showed that 74 % of the molecular variation was inter-genotypic, 23 % inter-population and 3 % intra-genotypic. The genotypes of wild barley and barley cultivars formed two groups in the dendrogram made by the UPGMA method. barley cultivars were in the group A, and wild barley genotypes were in the group B. From the results of this study, it was concluded that wild barley genotypes originated from Turkey showed wide variations in the studied characteristics and these variations could be used for the barley breeding in our country