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AOBPreview originally published online on August 30, 2007
Annals of Botany 2007 100(5):999-1008; doi:10.1093/aob/mcm139
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© 2007 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The Importance of Barley Genetics and Domestication in a Global Perspective

Mohammad Pourkheirandish and Takao Komatsuda*

National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS), Tsukuba 305-8602, Japan

* For correspondence. E-mail takao{at}affrc.go.jp

Received: 15 December 2006    Returned for revision: 26 March 2007    Accepted: 22 May 2007    Published electronically: 30 August 2007

Background: Archaeological evidence has revealed that barley (Hordeum vulgare) is one of the oldest crops used by ancient farmers. Studies of the time and place of barley domestication may help in understanding ancient human civilization.

Scope: The studies of domesticated genes in crops have uncovered the mechanisms which converted wild and unpromising wild species to the most important food for humans. In addition to archaeological studies, molecular studies are finding new insights into the process of domestication. Throughout the process of barley domestication human selection on wild species resulted in plants with more harvestable seeds. One of the remarkable changes during barley domestications was the appearance of six-rowed barley. The gene associated with this trait results in three times more seed per spike compared with ancestral wild barley. This increase in number of seed resulted in a major dichotomy in the evolution of barley. The identification of the six-rowed spike gene provided a framework for understanding how this character was evolved. Some important barley domestication genes have been discovered and many are currently being investigated.

Conclusions: Identification of domestication genes in crops revealed that most of the drastic changes during domestication are the result of functional impairments in transcription factor genes, and creation of new functions is rare. Isolation of the six-rowed spike gene revealed that this trait was domesticated more than once in the domestication history of barley. Six-rowed barley is derived from two-rowed ancestral forms. Isolation of photoperiod-response genes in barley and rice revealed that different genes belonging to similar genetic networks partially control this trait.

Key words: Barley, Hordeum, domestication gene, genome evolution, common ancestor, vrs1


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