Chromosomal loci associated with endosperm hardness in a malting barley cross

A breeding objective for the malting barley industry is to produce lines with softer, plumper grain containing moderate protein content (9-12%) as they are more likely to imbibe water readily and contain more starch per grain, which in turn produces higher levels of malt extract. In a malting barley mapping population, 'Arapiles' × 'Franklin', the most significant and robust quantitative trait locus (QTL) for endosperm hardness was observed on the short arm of chromosome 1H, across three environments over two growing seasons. This accounted for 22.6% (Horsham 2000), 26.8% (Esperance 2001), and 12.0% (Tarranyurk 2001) of the genetic variance and significantly increased endosperm hardness by 2.06-3.03 SKCS hardness units. Interestingly, Arapiles and Franklin do not vary in Ha locus alleles. Therefore, this region, near the centromere on chromosome 1H, may be of great importance when aiming to manipulate endosperm hardness and malting quality. Interestingly, this region, close to the centromere on chromosome 1H, in our study, aligns with the region of the genome that includes the HvCslF9 and the HvGlb1 genes. Potentially, one or both of these genes could be considered to be candidate genes that influence endosperm hardness in the barley grain. Additional QTLs for endosperm hardness were detected on chromosomes 2H, 3H, 6H and 7H, confirming that the hardness trait in barley is complex and multigenic, similar to many malting quality traits of interest.