QTL alleles from a winter feed type can improve malting quality in barley

Mapping QTLs responsible for malting quality traits in barley populations has been the main genetic approach to malting quality breeding. A ‘winter x spring’ doubled haploid barley population ‘Nure’ x ‘Tremois’, where such traits were segregating, has been recently developed. Our objective was to map QTLs for malting quality from two years of trials in two contrasting locations. QTLs were found on six chromosomes, with a main cluster on chromosome 1H. For wort viscosity and malt extract, favourable alleles at two loci on chromosome 5H were carried by the winter feeding parent ‘Nure’. Doubled-haploids with higher quality than the spring malting cultivar ‘Tremois’ showed either a facultative or a winter growth habit and a level of frost tolerance comparable to that of the winter tolerant parent ‘Nure’. Markers and QTLs of quality traits were further validated on a separate set of DH lines, coming from the same cross, by means of marker-assisted selection. This showed that, at least in the present cross combination, positive contributions to malting quality can be found in winter feed barley.