Kevin Smith, University of Minnesota barley breeder stated that the average barley yield in his St. Paul trials (2006) was 102 bushel per acre. This is 13 % higher than last year. Barley breeding projects in the nation recently received a grant to work on improving barley breeding nation wide. The barley Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) is a community effort of 30 scientists from 19 institutions with expertise ranging from genetics/genomics, breeding, pathology, databases, computer science, food science, malt quality, and statistics. The University of Minnesota is the lead institution for this project.

The substantial resources of barley genomics/genetics have not been integrated to improve the efficiency of barley breeding and provide geneticists and breeders with seamless access to genes controlling economically and biologically important traits. The overall theme of the barley CAP is to integrate and utilize state-of-the-art genomic tools and approaches in plant breeding programs, thereby facilitating the development of superior barley cultivars and access to agronomic and economically important genes.

Researchers will use the science of association genetics to identify genes controlling yield, food and malt quality, and disease resistance. Association genetics deals with evaluating and measuring the degree of association between the molecular markers (genes) and the traits of interest. Marker-assisted selection technology allows breeders to more precisely select the best trait combinations for specific varieties. For example, a plant scientist might mark a combination of genes known to increase disease resistance. Breeders wanting the disease resistance trait use marker information to identify lines containing that specific combination of genes.

For more information about this project see
http://www.barleycap.org/