Characterization of specific DNA markers at VRN-H1 and VRN-H2 loci for growth habit of barley genotypes.

Requirement of vernalization is an important factor which plays a crucial role in cereals to transit from vegetative to reproductive phase. There are three types of growth habit in barley: winter, spring and facultative types; in which spring type does not require vernalization but winter and facultative genotypes require full and partial vernalization, respectively. Combination of two loci, Vrn-h1 and Vrn-h2, regulates vernalization in barley genotypes. Specific DNA markers have been identified for growth habit regulator genes in barley. In this study, we examined 24 barley genotypes using specific primers for detecting Vrn-h1and Vrn-h2 loci. Results showed that among all differently suggested primer combinations, a few markers were precisely correlated with seasonal growth habit in barley. The specific markers of 600, 600 and 200 bps were verified for ZCCT-Ha, ZCCT-Hb and ZCCT-Hc loci, respectively. Our field growth habit test showed that cultivar Bahman as a winter growth habit, where all the others genotypes exhibited spring growth habit. By using specific primers for Vrn-h1, only Bahman cultivar produced 616 bp and 830 bp fragments and spring genotypes showed 574 bp or 616 bp alleles without any amplification for 830 bp fragments. Therefore, presence of 616 bp and 830 bp alleles together in each genotype can be considered as an informative marker for winter growth habit in barley. These informative markers can be used easily in barley breeding programmes for detection of growth habit types in the seedling stage.