The barley leaf rust fungus forms appressoria over host leaf stomata and penetrates via the stomatal pore. High levels of avoidance to leaf rust fungi have been described in some wild accessions of Hordeum species where a prominent wax layer on the stomata inhibits triggering of fungal appressorium differentiation. Leaf rust avoidance has not yet been found in H. vulgare. Since cuticular leaf w...

Plant diseases are a serious threat to crop production. The informed use of naturally occurring disease resistance in plant breeding can greatly contribute to sustainably reduce yield losses caused by plant pathogens. The Ta-Lr34res gene encodes an ABC transporter protein and confers partial, durable, and broad spectrum resistance against several fungal pathogens in wheat. Transgenic barley lin...

"> The present study described the diversity of wheat and barley varieties andlandraces available in farmer’s fields in Syria using different indicators. Analysisof spatial and temporal diversity and coefficient of parentage along withmeasurements of agronomic and morphological traits were employed to explain thediversity of wheat and barley varieties or landraces grown by farmers in Syria.Farm...

Drought is a major abiotic stress impeding the yield of cereal crops globally. Particularly in Mediterranean environments, water becomes a limiting factor during the reproductive developmental stage, causing yield losses. The wild progenitor of cultivated barley Hordeum vulgare ssp spontaneum (Hsp) is a potentially useful source of drought tolerance alleles. Wild barley introgression lines like...

Little is known about the genetic divergence in the chromosomal regions with domesticated and non-domesticated genes. The objective of our study is to examine the effect of natural selection on shaping genetic diversity of chromosome region with domesticated and non-domesticated genes in barley using 110 SSR markers. Comparison of the genetic diversity loss between wild and cultivated barley fo...

Barley lectin is synthesized as a preproprotein with a glycosylated carboxyl-terminal propeptide (CTPP) that is removed before or concomitant with deposition of the mature protein in vacuoles. Expression of a cDNA clone encoding barley lectin in transformed tobacco plants results in the correct processing, maturation, and accumulation of active barley lectin in vacuoles [Wilkins, T.A., Bednarek...

Experimental archaeology at a Natufian site in the Southern Levant documents for the first time the use of 12,500-year-old rock-cut mortars for producing wild barley flour, some 2,000 to 3,000 years before cereal cultivation. Our reconstruction involved processing wild barley on the prehistoric threshing floor, followed by use of the conical mortars (a common feature in Natufian sites), thereby...

Abscisic acid (ABA) is a central player in plant responses to drought stress. How variable levels of ABA under short-term versus long-term drought stress impact assimilation and growth in crops is unclear. We addressed this through comparative analysis, using two elite breeding lines of barley (Hordeum vulgare) that show senescence or stay-green phenotype under terminal drought stress and by ma...

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) seeds are a rich source of ?-glucans that can help reduce blood serum cholesterol content in human diets. However, high levels this polysaccharide the causes inefficiencies such as slow lautering during brewing process due to higher wort viscosity. Thus, depending on end use, barley breeding programs have opposing goals with respect ?-glucan. Discovery new alleles fo...

Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) have been demonstrated to be involved in fungal development, sexual reproduction, pathogenicity and/or virulence in many filamentous plant pathogenic fungi, but genes for MAPKs in the fungal cereal pathogen Bipolaris sorokiniana have not been characterized. In this study, orthologues of three MAPK genes (CsSLT2, CsHOG1 and CsFUS3) and one MAPK kinase ki...