Carla de la Fuente, (PhD student) in the polytunnels 6 weeks after planting.
Carla de la Fuente, (PhD student) in the polytunnels 6 weeks after planting.

A set of recombinant chromosome substitution lines (RCSLs) obtained by an advanced backcross of a malting barley cv. Harrington, as the recurrent parent, and a genetically distant salt and drought tolerant Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum accession (wild), from the Fertile Crescent, as the donor parent are the basis of field and glasshouse experiments at the James Hutton Institute. We have grown a subset (29 lines) which represents segments covering the entire genome of the wild donor in each of the different lines under three different watering conditions, fully irrigated, partially irrigated (stopped irrigation between heading and anthesis) and non-irrigated conditions in a replicated in a split-plot design.

Contrast between the partially irrigated in the forefront and the fully irrigated in the background.

Morphological traits have been measured at key developmental stages and, grab samples for yield and seed characters were harvested from the two middle rows of the 6 row plots.

Transporting grab samples to the field laboratory for weight and counting and grab samples before drying.
Transporting grab samples to the field laboratory for weight and counting and grab samples before drying.

 

All of the data gathered over the growing season will be analysed to identify, using a QTL mapping analysis approach,  regions of the wild barley genome that are important in understanding drought.

PrintFor further information on this project please contact Joanne Russell (joanne.russell@hutton.ac.uk) from the James Hutton Institute.