Whole-Genome Sequencing of the Wild Barley Diversity Collection: A Resource for Identifying and Exploiting Genetic Variation for Cultivated Barley Improvement

Abstract

To exploit allelic variation in Hordeum vulgare subsp. spontaneum, the Wild Barley Diversity Collection was evaluated for several agronomic traits and subjected to paired-end Illumina sequencing at [~]9X depth, generating 109.5 million single nucleotide polymorphisms after alignment to the Morex V3 assembly. A genome-wide association study of lemma color identified one marker-trait association (MTA) on chromosome 1HL close to HvBlp, the cloned gene controlling black lemma. Four MTAs were identified for stem rust resistance: one co-locating to the complex RMRL1-RMRL2 locus on 5HL, and three novel loci on 1HS, 1HL, and 5HL. Six MTAs for days to heading (DTH) on vernalized plants were identified on all chromosomes except 1H and 6H. Two MTAs for DTH on non-vernalized plants were identified on chromosomes 1HL and 2HS. All MTAs for DTH were novel. The whole genome sequence data described herein will facilitate the identification and utilization of new alleles for barley improvement.