Genetic relationships between preharvest sprouting and dormancy in barley

Preharvest sprouting (PHS) and dormancy (DOR) can be problems in barley production and end use quality, especially for barley used for seed and malting. Three crosses previously analyzed for DOR inheritance, were reanalyzed for PHS and DOR inheritance using artificial rain to calculate sprout score (SSc) and measure alpha-amylase activity (AA). Germination percentage of untreated grain for DOR was also measured. The crosses are ‘Steptoe’/’Morex’ (previously published), ‘Harrington’/TR306, and ‘Triumph’/Morex. Among the three crosses, DOR QTLs were located to six and PHS QTLs to five chromosomes, respectively. Chromosome 6H was never implicated. Previously identified DOR QTLs were confirmed in each cross, and most PHS QTLs coincided with DOR QTLs, but not all. Unique PHS QTLs were identified on chromosomes 1H (AA), 2H (SSc, AA), 3H (SSc, AA), and 7H (SSc, AA) and unique DOR QTLs on 1H, 2H, and 7H. Results indicate that PHS susceptibility and DOR are not always represented by opposite alleles at a locus. Some QTL regions for a given trait are conserved across crosses and some are not. Several QTLs are suitable for marker-assisted selection to balance PHS and DOR in breeding new cultivars.