Determination of the Allelic Composition of the (), () and () Genes in Spring Barley Accessions from the VIR Collection.

The lodging of barley significantly limits its potential yield, leads to the deterioration of grain quality, and complicates mechanized harvesting. More than 30 dwarfness and semi-dwarfness genes and loci are known for barley, and their involvement in breeding can solve the problem of lodging. The most common dwarfing alleles are of the genes / (), (), and (). The aim of this study was the design of dCAPS markers for the and alleles and the molecular screening of barley accessions from the VIR collection for identifying these and other dwarfing alleles commonly used in breeding. Two dCAPS markers have been developed to identify the allele of the gene and of . These dCAPS markers and two known from the literature CAPS and dCAPS markers of the alleles /, , , and were used in the molecular screening of 32 height-contrasting barley accessions. This made it possible to identify the accessions with alleles , , and of the gene, as well as accessions with a combination of and alleles of the genes and . A comparison of the results of genotyping and phenotyping showed that the presence of dwarfing alleles in all genotypes determines high or medium lodging resistance regardless of the influence of weather conditions. Twelve accessions were found to contain the new allele of the gene, which differs from the known allele by a larger size of PCR products. It is characterized by the Thalos_2 transposon insertion; the subsequent GTTA insertion, common with the allele; and by a single-nucleotide G→A substitution at the 165 position.