Performance of 50 Lebanese Barley Landraces (Hordeum Vulgare L
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Annals of Agricultural Science (2015) 60(2), 325–334 HOSTED BY Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University Annals of Agricultural Science www.elsevier.com/locate/aoas Performance of 50 Lebanese barley landraces (Hordeum vulgare L. subsp. vulgare) in two locations under rainfed conditions Lamis Chalak a,*, Rim Mzid b, Wissam Rizk a, Haytham Hmedeh a, Rabih Kabalan c, Joelle Breidy c, Bariaa Hamadeh c, Hassan Machlab d, He´le` ne Rizk a, Samih Elhajj a a Department of Plant Production, Faculty of Agriculture, The Lebanese University, Dekwaneh, Beirut, Lebanon b Laboratoire de Physiologie Mole´culaire des Plantes, Centre de Biotechnologie de Borj-Ce´dria, B.P. 901, Hammem Lif 2050, Tunisia c Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute, P.O. Box 287, Zahle´, Lebanon d ICARDA Country Office, P.O. Box 114/5055, Verdun, Beirut, Lebanon Received 31 May 2015; accepted 8 November 2015 Available online 24 December 2015 KEYWORDS Abstract Breeding activities in Lebanon have attributed limited interest to barley and landraces Barley; have not been exploited before. In this study, 50 Lebanese barley landraces were experimented rain- Genetic resources; fed in Northern Bekaa in comparison with two checks, Assi and Rihane-3. Two field trials were Rainfed; conducted, the first at 1000 m a.s.l. and 171.6 mm precipitations, and the second at 648 m a.s.l. Quantitative traits; and 119.4 mm. Out of the 50 landraces, five named LR9, LR12, LR16, LR30 and LR32 were early Genetic variability in heading and maturity in both trials, similarly to checks. Landraces showed a large variability for yield components, particularly grain number per spike and thousand grain weight. Number of spikes per plant and grain weight per plant were twice greater in Kfardan than Qaa location. The best plant productivity in Kfardan was 3.8 g/plant recorded for LR11 vs. 3.46 g/plant obtained with LR33 in Qaa. The higher yield was recorded in Qaa trial with 255 g/m2 for LR31 and 244 g/m2 produced by LR32, while 211 and 200 g/m2 were recorded in Rihane-3 and Assi checks respectively. Principal components analysis allowed to distinguish several landraces that were clustered next to the checks sharing similar features of plant height, spike length and yield per m2. At the level of individual plants and based on the grain yield per plant, a set of 47 plants were found to be similar or even greater to the checks. These plants should be further evaluated for their agronomic perfor- mance within national breeding program. Ó 2015 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (L. Chalak). Peer review under responsibility of Faculty of Agriculture, Ain-Shams University. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aoas.2015.11.005 0570-1783 Ó 2015 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). 326 L. Chalak et al. Introduction Jordan for morphological and agronomic traits and resistance to diseases (Ceccarelli et al., 1987; Jaradat et al., 1987; Van Landraces are recognized to present a tangible crop genetic Leur et al., 1989; Jaradat, 1991), few efforts have been dis- resource of actual or potential economic benefit for human- played in that regards. Russell et al. (2003) examined the pat- kind at national, regional and global levels. They provide a terns of polymorphism detected in the chloroplast and nuclear large gene pool for future genetic improvement programs genomes of barley landraces sampled from Syria and Jordan in and food security (Ceccarelli, 1994). Landraces ecological relation to different ecogeographic origin to further under- amplitudes may exceed those of the varieties derived from stand the farmer’s selection practices. In the Western Mediter- them in terms of evolution and adaptation to change in agri- ranean, barley landraces have not either been widely used in cultural systems under specific cultural and environmental modern breeding, probably with the exception of the Coast stresses (Kneupffer et al., 2003). Actually, landraces are devel- types (of Spanish or North African origin) that were intro- oped during long-term traditional cultivation at the same loca- duced in California by Spanish settlers in the 18th century tion where they are exposed to both human selection and and constituted later the founding germplasm groups of cur- ecogeographic pressures. Landraces are to a much larger part rent North American barleys (Kneupffer et al., 2003). More selected or adapted to fit the environment of their location of recently phenotyping effort has been conducted on Spanish origin while modern cultivars are developed for high yield and barleys from the agronomic point of view and to assess their seldom targeted at a particular location (Gepts and Papa, potential to contribute to favorable traits (Yahiaoui et al., 2002; Lasa et al., 2001). There is now an increasing recognition 2014). of the importance of on farm maintenance of these locally This study is a part of an effort to overcome this lack of adapted genotypes as a component of conservation efforts phenotyping efforts through the evaluation of genetic variabil- together with the recognition of the role of farmers and envi- ity of a set of Lebanese barley landraces under rainfed condi- ronment as significant factors influencing the maintenance of tions. The objectives of this work are to evaluate the Lebanese genetic diversity (UNEP, 1994). However, little is known barley landraces for their agronomic traits under the rainfed about the genetic structure of landraces populations, the conditions in comparison with modern cultivars widely grown amount of genetic variation they possess and its impact on in Lebanon, and to raise the attention of the barley community the ability of landraces to adapt to harsh environments. In in the Near East on the potential of the Lebanese landraces as general, landraces constitute one of the most valuable sources valuable phytogenetic resource for further use in breeding of genetic diversity. This diversity has become now more programmes. accessible thanks to the advances in genomics and recombi- Materials and methods nant DNA technology (Newton et al., 2010) and is hopefully exploited. Plant material Originated from the Eastern Mediterranean in the area of Fertile Crescent, the cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the first domesticated crops having long history of A total of 50 Lebanese landraces of barley were used in this adaptation to cultivation worldwide (Zohary and Hopf, study including two sets of materials: (i) 35 landraces collected 1993; Bothmer et al., 2003; Zohary et al., 2012). Wild popula- in 2011 from different agro-climatic areas in Lebanon tions of Hordeum spontaneum L. are still widely grown in this (LR1–LR35) and stored at the national gene bank of the area (Jana and Pietrzak, 1988). To date, barley is grown in a Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute and (ii) 15 landraces wide ecogeographic range around the world and is thus one recovered from the gene bank of ICARDA-Aleppo and of the best-adapted crops to diverse cultivation conditions. initially collected from Lebanon in the nineties (LR36–LR50). Nevertheless the use of barley in the Near East countries is still Additionally two barley varieties, namely Rihane-3 (6-rowed) mostly limited to feed, despite the increased demand by local and Assi (2-rowed), initially released by ICARDA and industries in imported malt and the new trend of barley food. commonly used in Lebanon and the Near East for the last Yet, a major loss of barley genetic resources is witnessed in 20–25 years were also used. The geographic data and the the Near East caused by substituting gradually the landraces agro-climatic conditions of the barley landraces under study by newly uniform bred cultivars that are high yielding and are shown in Fig. 1 and Table 1. specifically improved for the challenges of modern agriculture. This may result in making agricultural productivity extremely Field trials vulnerable to various stresses including climate change. Never- theless in Lebanon, landraces persisted through successive gen- Two field trials were conducted in northern Bekaa – Lebanon. erations in dry and marginal areas, probably due to their stable The first one is at Kfardan LARI station at 1000 m a.s.l. and agronomic performance. So far, germplasm assessment and 171.6 mm precipitations, and the second one in Qaa – Aarzal breeding activities in Lebanon have attributed limited interest farmers’ cooperative field at 648 m a.s.l. and 119.4 mm precip- to barley and Lebanese landraces have not been exploited itations. The trials conditions are presented in Table 2. The tri- before although they may constitute a distinct genetic resource als were carried out in Randomized Complete Block Design with potential to contribute favorable traits to barley breeding. with three replications. The size of experimental unit was The reasons for this are mostly the lack of pre-breeding char- 2.5 m  1.8 m making an area of 4.5 m2. The seeding rate acterization and phenotyping investigation that are prevalent was 150 g/plot. Seeds of the different genotypes were sown in the region. Actually, since the primary evaluation of diver- by the end of December 2013 in both sites. The border was sity landraces collected along the Fertile Crescent in Syria and planted with the check Rihane-3. Performance of 50 Lebanese barley landraces 327 Fig. 1 Geographic distribution of barley landraces collected from Lebanon.