Random amplified polymorphic primer-generated embryo DNA polymorphisms among 16 North American malting barley cultivars

Development of a simple, accurate, and rapid method for identifying malting barley cultivars is important for the malting, brewing, and seed-processin g industries. Recently reported methods that have been developed for using DNA to "fingerprint" barley utilize DNA that is extracted from leaf tissue. For this study, we used the polymerase chain reaction-random amplified pol ymorphic DNA (PCR-RAPD) technique with a selected set of 10-mer primers and DNA that was extracted from mature imbibed embryos. We were able to differ entiate 16 malting barley cultivars or breeding lines that are commonly gro wn in North America, including the two-rowed cultivars Crystal, Garnet, Gal ena, Harrington, and B1202 and the six-rowed cultivars Robust, Stander, Mor ex, Excel, Lacey, Foster, Drummond, Russell, 88Ab536-B, B2601, and B2978. T his method is simple to use and can be accomplished in 12-16 hr, since it b ypasses the time-consuming germination and seedling growth steps. PCR resul ts using embryo DNA samples are comparable to those obtained with leaf tiss ue DNA. The rapid and simple procedure that we have developed can be adapte d by industry to maintain cultivar purity and to check the integrity of pur chased seed lots.