Single nucleotide polymorphism assay to distinguish barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) varieties in support of seed certification

Abstract

Seed certification of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) involves scoring morphological characteristics to determine the variety in field plots which is expensive and time consuming. In order to establish whether molecular tests can identify the barley variety we have developed a molecular test to be used on seed. The molecular test genotypes the seed samples using 38 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and can distinguish the varieties that are currently in commercial production in Scotland. The 38 SNP set has the ability to distinguish most of the 700? contemporary barley cultivars that have previously been genotyped. This SNP test was developed to support the current seed certification system at Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA), Scottish Government. SASA certifies all of the barley seed produced in Scotland according to EU regulations.

Cultivar Discrimination of Single Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) Seed via Multispectral Imaging Combined with Multivariate Analysis

“…However, DUS assessments are often costly, time-consuming and restricted to a relatively small number of traits that are influenced by environmental conditions. Molecular testing has been considered as a more efficient way to make cultivar identification with high accuracy [ 6 , 7 , 8 ]. However, molecular methods are generally required destructive sampling, and not suitable for online measurements and sorting.…”

Overcoming barriers to the registration of new plant varieties under the DUS system

“…To extend beyond locus-specific markers, a small marker set for DUS has been proposed 25 although our evaluation showed limited distinguishing power. By simulating F 6 progeny from known parent pairs, we compared the marker set from these simulated progeny to their parents, actual variety (progeny of the parent pairs), and other simulated progeny.…”

“…A small marker set for DUS is problematic in a crop in which genomic diversity progressively gets narrower over time. Of the total 39 markers 25 , only 4 to 22 markers are segregating between the parents analyzed. Besides, these markers are not randomly distributed as there are some in strong linkage disequilibrium (LD) which would not informative.…”

“…Evaluation on the usefulness of small marker set in DUS via simulation. To evaluate the 45 DUS markers in Owen et al 25 , we simulated these markers in the progeny of known parent pairs. We used 39 out of the 45 markers for simulation as six of the markers were either absent or low quality in our dataset.…”

Overcoming barriers to the registration of new varieties

“…Evaluation on the usefulness of small marker set in DUS via simulation. To evaluate the 45 DUS markers in Owen et al 21 , we simulated these markers in the progeny of known parent pairs.…”