Identification of the eam8 allele associated with photoperiod insensitivity in barley accessions from Japan

BACKGROUND: Cultivated plants grown in the northern regions of Russia are subject to strict requirements in terms of their ability to produce a high yield during short growing season. Important adaptive traits that affect crop yield are early maturity and insensitivity to photoperiod. The search and involvement in breeding programs of new sources of these valuable traits is a necessary step for the creation of new ecologically plastic varieties.

THE AIM: To identify alleles of the Eam8 gene, which determine weak photoperiodic sensitivity, among Japanese barley accessions from the N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR) collection.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Screening of 200 barley accessions from Japan was carried out in a climatic chamber in order to identify plants with yellow color of seedlings — a marker sign of the influence of the eam8 allele, which controls early maturity and low sensitivity to the photoperiod. The presumably photoperiod-insensitive accession was studied under conditions of long and short photoperiods and was studied by molecular methods.

RESULTS: Phenotypic screening identified a presumably photoperiod-insensitive accession k-17545 (Jap.456). The photoperiodic sensitivity of the accession and the variety Mari (carrier of the recessive eam8 allele) were similar. Using molecular analysis, the eam8.k allele, occurred naturally in the cultivars Kinai 5 and Kagoshima Gold from Japan, was found in the k-17545 line. The Jap.456 was polymorphic by srorage proteins (hordein) patterns and RAPD profiles. In addition, previously undescribed SNPs in the eam8.k sequence were identified in individual plants.

CONCLUSIONS: As a result of the study of 200 accessions of barley from Japan, accession k-17545 (Jap.456) was found, in which the eam8.k allele was identified, which controls weak sensitivity to the photoperiod.