ALUMINUM TOLERANCE IN BARLEY: MOLECULAR MAPPING ANALYSES

Abstract

Southern Brazil is characterized by acid soils with high levels of aluminum (Al), which difficult the total growth of the plant root, and barley is, among the cereal species, the most sensitive to this metal. Development of Al tolerant cultivars may be an effective solution to this problem. In the present study, RFLP, microsatellite, and AFLP markers were analyzed in a F2 progeny originated from a single cross between the cultivars ‘FM-404’ (moderately Al tolerant) and ‘Harrington’ (Al tolerant) to identify molecular markers linked to the Al tolerance gene. Al tolerance was identified by the hematoxylin staining method. Al tolerance was found to be controlled by a single gene in ‘FM-404’ and the RFLP marker Xwg464, located on the long arm of the chromosome 4H, was found to be located 21.6 centiMorgans from this gene.