Genetic diversity analysis of barley landraces and cultivars in the Shanghai region of China.

We analyzed the genetic diversity of 115 barley germplasms, including 112 landraces and three new barley cultivars grown in the Shanghai region, using a set of 11 SSR markers. Sixtysix alleles were observed at the 11 SSR loci, ranged from three to ten, with a mean of six alleles per locus. The polymorphism information content ranged from 0.568 to 0.853, with a mean of 0.732, indicating considerable genetic variation in barley in the Shanghai area. Clustering analysis indicated that these barley accessions could be divided into two categories (A and B). Ninety-seven six-rowed barley cultivars were classified in the A category; sixteen two-rowed and two six-rowed barley cultivars were classified in the B category. This demonstrated genetic differences between two-rowed and six-rowed barley varieties. In addition, we found that the three new barley cultivars are closely related.