Barley β-Amylase: Effect of Genotype and Growing Location

Genotype and Location Effects on Barley β-Amylase

Abstract

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) β-amylase is a key starch-degrading enzyme with essential roles in seed germination, malting, and brewing and contributes significantly to the malt diastatic power. The Indian malt industry needs barley varieties with higher diastatic power especially for brewing with adjuncts. There is need to generate information on status of β-amylase activity under sub-tropical climates. In this article an attempt has been made to find out the effect of genotype and growing location on β-amylase activity. Both genotype and growing location significantly affected the grain and malt β-amylase activity. Among the genotypes ICARDA-8 has been found to possess significantly higher β-amylase activity and can serve as useful source for malting quality improvement from diastatic power point of view for the Indian malt barley improvement programme.