THE USE OF MICROSATELLITE MARKERS FOR DETECTION OF GENETIC DIVERSITY IN BARLEY POPULATIONS

A barley lambda-phage library was screened with (GA)n and (GT)n probes for developing microsatellite markers. The number of repeats ranged f rom 2 to 58 for GA and from 2 to 24 for GT. Fifteen selected microsate llite markers were highly polymorphic for barley. These microsatellite markers were used to estimate the genetic diversity among 163 barley genotypes chosen from the collection of the IPK Genebank, Germany. A t otal of 130 alleles were detected by 15 barley microsatellite markers. The number of alleles per microsatellite marker varied from 5 to 15. On average 8.6 alleles per locus were observed. Except for GMS004 all other barley microsatellite markers showed on average a high value of gene diversity ranging from 0.64 to 0.88. The mean value of gene diver sity in the wild forms and landraces was 0.74, and even among the cult ivars the gene diversity ranged from 0.30 to 0.86 with a mean of 0.72. No significant differences in polymorphism were detected by the GA an d GT microsatellite markers. The estimated genetic distances revealed by the microsatellite markers were, on average, 0.75 for the wild form s, 0.72 for landraces and 0.70 among cultivars. The microsatellite mar kers were able to distinguish between different barley genotypes. The high degree of polymorphisms of microsatellite markers allows a rapid and efficient identification of barley genotypes.