Towards the Development of Perennial Barley for Cold Temperate Climates—Evaluation of Wild Barley Relatives as Genetic Resources

Abstract

Perennial cereal crops could limit the negative impacts of agriculture on the environment and climate change. In cold temperate climates, perennial plants must be adapted to seasonal changes and abiotic stresses, such as frost, to be able to regrow for several years. Wild crop relatives that are perennials and already adapted to cold temperate climates may provide genetic resources for breeding new perennial cereal grain crops. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is one of the most important cereals in northern agricultural areas, and its related perennial species may be good candidates for the development of perennial cereals. We evaluated a diverse set of 17 wild perennial Hordeum species represented by 67 accessions in field conditions with a cold winter climate and long days during summer in Central Sweden (latitude 60 • N). Six species (H. brevisubulatum, H. bulbosum, H. fuegianum, H. jubatum, H. lechleri and H. secalinum) showed regrowth and formation of spikes for four seasons. The most distant perennial relative of barley, H. stenostachys, showed weak regrowth. H. bulbosum, the closest perennial barley relative, had a large number of accessions with wide geographic origins that showed good regrowth. Together with its storage bulbs and its cross-compatibility with barley, this makes H. bulbosum an important genetic resource for the development of perennial Hordeum grains using either the domestication or the wide-hybridization strategy.

The Performance of Early-Generation Perennial Winter Cereals at 21 Sites across Four Continents

“…H. bulbosum is considered to be the genetically closest wild perennial relative to barley. These four introgression lines harbor different segments of H. bulbosum [52,54] and they were chosen for this study since they also indicated promising performance in trials carried out by Westerbergh et al [52]. Similar to many of the wheat hybrid lines, the barley ILs did not show persistence from year 2 to year 3 in the cold winter climate (data from two sites) or the mild winter climate conditions (data from two sites).…”

“…In comparison to the development of perennial wheat, perennial barley is at an earlier stage [52]. Barley and its wild relatives in the genus Hordeum are widespread among various climates, and barley is the cereal which is grown in the most northern agricultural areas.…”

Strategies, Advances, and Challenges in Breeding Perennial Grain Crops

“…[33]. The issue also includes a review focusing on species in the legume family under consideration for domestication as pulse crops [34].…”

A social perennial vision: Transdisciplinary inquiry for the future of diverse, perennial grain agriculture

“…Some of the species currently in early stages of evaluation include perennial grain candidates including Hordeum bulbosum, a wild perennial barley. Such a wild plant is being explored by scientists around the world for barley breeding and improvement but is also beginning to be explored for domestication as a perennial grain (Westerbergh et al, 2018). plants in a social context in order to advance pilot studies for selection and domestication; the group envisions perennial grain agroecosystems in Palestine (Tesdell et al, 2020).…”