biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 59:283-290, 2015 | DOI: 10.1007/s10535-015-0496-z

QTL mapping for salt tolerance in barley at seedling growth stage

H. Ahmadi-Ochtapeh¹, H. Soltanloo^1,*, S. S. Ramezanpour¹, M. R. Naghavi², H. R. Nikkhah³, S. Yoosefi Rad¹

¹ Department of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Faculty of Plant Production, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

² Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Agricultural College, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

³ Seed and Plant Improvement Institute, Karaj, Iran

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), an important food and fodder crop, is potentially tolerant to salinity. To identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) controlling salt tolerance, the population of 162 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from F8 generation of Arigashar (an extremely salt tolerant Iranian six-rowed barley landrace) crossed with Igri (a salt semi-sensitive two-rowed cultivar) were evaluated. The growth of shoots, roots, and coleoptiles, and root numbers are four important growth characteristics severely affected by salt stress at seedling growth stages. A linkage map was constructed using 106 AFLP and SSR markers spanning six barley chromosomes including 2(2H), 3(3H), 4(4H), 7(5H), 6(6H), and 1(7H). Out of totally 26 detected QTLs, 17 QTLs were found effective for salt tolerance at 250 and 350 mM NaCl which localized on chromosomes 2H, 3H, 4H, 6H, 7H, and linkage group L1, whereas considering equivalent overlapped QTLs with a pleiotropic effect led to detection of totally 9 distinctive QTLs (QClgH2.1b, QSdgH2.1b, QSlgH2.1c, QNrgH2.1b, QTwgH2.2c, QSdg3Hb, QSlg4Hb1, QClg4Hb, and QSlg6Hc2) effective for salinity tolerance. 2(2H), 4(4H), and 6(6H) were major chromosomes harboring QTLs which effectively controlled salt tolerance in the Igri×Arigashar population. An interesting QTL, QTwg4Hc, was localized on chromosome 4H in the XE41-M61 marker distance that controls several traits including shoot and coleoptile lengths and shoot fresh mass under salt stress. A dense marker cluster around a resistance gene could offer a starting point for positional cloning.

Keywords: AFLP; Hordeum vulgare; RILs; SSR

Subjects: QTL mapping; salt tolerance; AFLP; RILs; SSR; growth; barley

Species: Hordeum vulgare

Received: July 16, 2014; Revised: November 10, 2014; Accepted: November 11, 2014; Published: June 1, 2015Show citation