Diversity for malting quality in barley (Hordeum vulgare) varieties released in India

Abstract

A study was conducted during 2005 to study the genetic diversity among 72 Indian barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) varieties released during last 60 years for different grain and malt quality traits. Most of these varieties were not originally bred as malt barley and there are only few varieties released as malt barley. The present study was taken up to analyze the extent of variability for malting quality in these released varieties. Observations were recorded on 7 grain and 7 malt traits. The study revealed that lot of variability exists among these varieties for individual malting quality traits. The data were subjected to clustering analysis for grouping of genotypes based on genetic diversity between groups. The hierarchical cluster analysis based on Euclidean distance and agglomerative linkage function indicated that genotypes with good malting quality were mostly grouped in cluster I and II.