Breeding for High-Lysine Barley: The Effects of Mutant High Lysine Risø 1508 in Five European Commercial Varieties

J. Merola, P. Fontanet,
A. Pons and J. L. Blanco
Centro de Investigacion y Desarrolo
C.S.I.C.
Barcelona, Spain

It is well known that the Risø mutant 1508 (Ingversen et. al., 1973) with the gene lys-3a (Jensen and Doll, 1979) has a content in lysine about 44% over its parental variety Bomi and so a lower yield.

In 1978, initiated a breeding program for high-lysine barley with 24 European commercial varieties, 18 winter barleys and 6 spring barley varieties, introducing the gene lys-3a of Risø 1508. Along the work, we selected the high- lysine progenies by the ninhydrin colour test (Mertz et. al., 1974) after each self-generation. At the same time, in order to check the efficiency of this colorimetric method, we analyzed the same seeds for protein and lysine content. Protein content was determined by gas chromatography using a model ANA 1400 nitrogen analyzer; lysine content was determined by ion-exchange chromatography using a Carlo Erba model 2A27 amino acid analyzer.

In this paper, we report lysine and protein contents of five BC2F2 in comparison to their parent varieties (see Table 1). When we determined the basic amino acids content by ion- exchange chromatography, we found a great variation in the increase of lysine content in four from the five BC2F2 progenies in relation to its parental varieties and, we noticed, also an important variation of ammonia content. Because of this, we calculated the relationship lysine/ammonia in order to compare our results with the Hans Doll's finding (1973). All data of parents and selected lines were compared by t-test. Non-significance and significance at P<0,05, P<0,01 and P<0,001 are indicated with N.S.9 *1 **, and ***, respectively. Also, we present the amino acid composition of two BC2F2 and 100 kernel weight of four BC2F2 (see Tables II and III).

Table I: Summary of lysine and protein content for five BC2F2 progenies and their parent varieties. These determinations are based on ten samples.

Table II:Summary of amino acid, composition for two BC2F2 and their Darent varieties.

Table III:Mean values for lysine content and 100 kernel weight (g) for four BC2F2 progenies and their parent varieties.

From the results presented in this report we conclude:

  1. High-lysine genotypes from Wisa, Lupe and Albacete are remarkably increased the relation lysine/protein in 73.1%, 61.3% and 58.3% respectively, in comparison with the normal lysine genotypes whereas high-lysine genotypes from Hatif de Grignon has only an increase of 29.6%.

  2. The parent variety Atlas and their segregant progenies from BC2F2 keep the same value of lysine/protein. In this case, the difference between both populations for lysine content can be due to an increase of protein content.

  3. We notice a great variability for protein content as much as basic amino acid composition in high lysine mutant Risø 1508. Also, the parent variety Albacete shows a great variability for protein content.

  4. Our results are in agreement with the Hans Doll's finding in the sense that the relationship lysine/ammonia is a good method for the screening of normal and high-lysine genotypes from segregant progenies. High-lysine genotypes from Wisa, Lupe and Albacete follow very well this condition. For high-lysine genotypes from Hatif de Grignon it is also followed but to a lesser extent. Segregant progenies from Atlas do not follow this relationship; this is in agreement with the results previously reported in the section 2.

  5. The amino acid composition indicates a great variation in some of them. Thus, we notice a decrease in the content of glutamic acid, proline and phenylalanine, and an increase in the content of aspartic acid, lysine and arginine. From these results, we conclude that the gene lys-3a of mutant Risø 1508 not only changes the lysine content, but also affects the content of other amino acids.

  6. Finally, in all high-lysine genotypes we observe a decrease on 100 kernel weight when we compare with the parent varieties. The maximum decrease is for Lupe high lysine genotypes which have a significant increase of lysine content. This negative relationship is in agreement with the findings of other authors.

References:

Doll, H. 1973. Inheritance of the high-lyBine character of a barley mutant. HereditaB 74:293-294.

Doll, H., Andersen, A. J., Koie, B. and Ingversen, J. 1973. High lysine mutants in barley. Barley Genetics Newsletter 3:12-13.

Ingversen, J., Koie, B. and Doll, H. 1973. Induced seed protein mutant of barley. Experientia 29:1151-1152.

Jensen, J. and Doll, H. 1979. Gene symbols for barley high- lysine mutants. Barley Genetics Newsletter 9:33-37.

Kreft, I., Javornik, B. and Kajfez-Bogataj, L. 1985. Ripening and yield in barley with high-lysine gene lys- 3a. Barley Genetics Newsletter 15:64-67.

Muench, S. R., Lejeune, A. J., Nilan, R. A. and Kleinhofs, A. 1975. Evidence for two independent high lysine genes in barley. Barley Genetics Newsletter 5:31.

Munck, L. 1972a. High lysine barley- a sumary of the present research development in Sweden. Barley Genetics Newsletter 2:54-59.

Tallberg, A. 1973. Ultrastructure and protein composition in high-lysine barley mutants. Hereditas 75:195-200.

Tallberg, A. 1980. Comparison between screening methods for lysine with the use of a barley material with a varying amino acid composition. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica 30:26-32.

Tallberg, A. 1982. Characterization of high-lysine barley genotypes. Hereditas 96:229-245.

Welch, R. W. 1978. protein barley genotypes. Cereal Research Communications, vol. 6, N. 4:393-398. Evaluation of high-lysine and high-

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