Hordeum vulgare ‘Heukbochal’, a naked waxy barley cultivar with a high anthocyanin content and black lemma has been developed from a cross between ‘Ginssalbori/Changyongjaelae’ and ‘Ginssalbori’ by the National Institute of Crop Science, RDA. It is a winter-type barley with a vernalization degree of Ⅳ, lax panicle with loose-type spike density, and long awn type. The average heading date of ‘Heukbochal’ is April 19^th, which is the same as that of the control cultivar ‘Saechalssalbori’. It has a long culm of 79 cm and a long spike length of 7.0 cm, with 54 grains per spike and a 1000-grain weight of 30.4 g. Although compared with ‘Saechalssalbori’, ‘Heukbochal’ shows weaker winter hardiness, it is characterized by better resistance to barley yellow mosaic virus. The grains of ‘Heukbochal’ showed a similar protein content (10.4%) to ‘Saechalssalbori’ but a lower beta-glucan content (5%) than that of ‘Saechalssalbori’. Furthermore, the grains of ‘Heukbochal’ have an anthocyanin content of 0.116±0.005 mg/bran g, which is 1.9 times higher than that of ‘Heuknuri’ (0.062±0.007 mg/bran g), another non-waxy naked barley cultivar with a black lemma. Additionally, its average grain yield is 4.02 ton/ha in paddy fields, which is 5% lower than that of ‘Saechalssalbori’. ‘Heukbochal’ is the first developed naked waxy barley cultivar with a high anthocyanin content and black lemma; therefore, we anticipate its cultivation in Korea (Registration No. 8194).

Barley is an economically important cereal crop grown under diverse environmental conditions and ranked fourth in terms of production volume. Barley is a diploid self-fertilizing plant with seven chromosomes, and has a 5.1 Gbp genome with more than 80% repeat sequences. Whole genome re-sequencing (WGR) has provided substantial information on sequence variation distributed on all chromosomes, such as single nucleotide polymorphisms, insertions, and deletions, which are used in the development of DNA markers. In this study, we performed WGR to detect sequence variations among six Korean malting varieties. An average of 92,552 insertions and deletions (InDels) were detected in these varieties in comparison to the high-quality reference genome sequences. The InDel density of the six Korean malting varieties ranged from 17 to 19 InDel/1Mbp with an average of 18 InDel/1Mbp. No InDel could be detected in 193 regions in all chromosomes except chr. unassigned. One interval with high-density InDel, more than 150 InDel/1Mbp, was located on the 1H, 3H, 6H, and 7H chromosomes. A total of 145 InDel markers were developed using 225 large-InDel markers, longer than 50 bp. Seventeen large-InDel makers showed polymorphisms among 31 malting barley varieties. These 31 malting barley varieties were divided into four groups based on phylogenetic analysis. These results presented a development method of agarose-resolvable large-InDel markers using WGR. Seventeen polymorphic large-InDel markers were used to conserve and identify barley germplasms. This vast information on sequence variation in six Korean malting barleys could be used for the development of DNA markers and marker-assisted selection.

We developed a malting barley, ‘Dapum’, with stable yield and enhanced quality for brewing. ‘Dapum’ was developed in 2015, by crossing Hopum, which has high brewing quality, and ‘GobDH96’, which has steady yield. The regional yield trials were conducted for ‘Dapum’ as a breeding line ‘Iksan173’ in four different regions from 2013 to 2015. It has a type I growth habit, and the average heading and maturing date in paddy fields were April 20 and May 26, respectively, which were 1 day earlier than those of ‘Hopum’. The yield potential of ‘Dapum’ was 411 kg/ha, which is approximately 10% higher than those of ‘Hopum’ under paddy field condition. ‘Dapum’ possesses the rym5 gene and is resistant to barley yellow mosaic virus (BaYMV), although susceptible to powdery mildew and lodging tolerance. It is similar to ‘Hopum’ in terms of enhanced brewing quality. ‘Dapum’ had a higher 1,000-grain weight (46.1 g) and assortment ratio (92%) than those of ‘Hopum,’ at 43.8 g and 90%, respectively. Analysis of grain quality for malting showed that ‘Dapum’ has high quality protein content, β-glucan content, and water sensitivity. Malt quality analysis revealed that ‘Dapum’ has 73.3% extraction rate, 3.7% soluble protein content, 32.6% Kolbach index, 244 WK (Windisch-Kolbach) diastatic power, and 80.2% friability, which were similar to those of ‘Hopum’. It would be suitable for cultivation in the zones of Korea that have a daily minimum temperature of -4℃ in January (Registration No. 7512).

Limitation of genetic diversity in japonica rice breeding populations is often identified as a potential obstacle for the development of high yielding cultivars. The use of diverse germplasm in rice breeding has been suggested as one way of combating this problem. This study was conducted to improve the genetic diversity for rice, by developing an advanced backcross population derived from a backcross ‘Junam’ as recurrent parent and ‘IR72’ as a donor parent. Among them, we selected a promising line ‘YR24438-B-B-B-B-132’ containing bacterial blight resistance gene Xa4. Testing in the replicated yield trial in 2009, the ‘YR24438-B-B-B-B-132’ line was selected, and it was designated as ‘Milyang298’. The local adaptability test of ‘Milyang298’ was carried out at three locations from 2014 to 2016 and it was named ‘MY298BB’. The average culm length in the replicated yield trials was 87 cm, which is 15 cm taller than recurrent parent ‘Junam’. Number of spikelets per panicle was significantly lower than in ‘Junam’ but the number of tillers per hill was higher. This variety is resistant to bacterial blight race K1, K2, K3, and K3a.However ‘MY298BB’ showed early leaf senescence at the mature stage and the chlorophyll content of ‘MY298BB’ was significantly lower than that of the recurrent parent ‘Junam’. Moreover the grain filling ratio and yield were significantly lower in ‘MY298BB’ than those of recurrent parent ‘Junam’. Therefore, understanding the leaf senescence mechanism would be useful for improving yield potential in rice.

Rice production is largely affected by various environmental conditions such as cold, heat and flooding. Here, to identify cold tolerant QTLs at seedling stage in rice, we generated RIL population derived from a cross between Hanareum 2 and Unkwang which are a highly cold sensitive and cold tolerant, respectively. We observed cold phenotype of this population in the growth chamber conditions and natural field conditions. For observation of cold tolerant phenotype of RIL population in the growth chamber, we treated cold stress (5~13°C) for 14 days and recovery for 4 days. When we examined the phenotype of RIL in the field conditions, temperature range in the field conditions was about 6 to 25°C in 2015~2016. We named QTLs as Seedling Cold Tolerant (SCT) in growth chamber and Cold induced Yellowing Tolerant (CYT) in the field, respectively. Three QTLs for SCT and 5 QTLs for CYT were detected on chromosome 1, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12. Among these QTLs, qSCT12 on chromosome 12 showed 26.3 LOD score with 25.5% of phenotypic variation. When qSCT11.1 and qSCT12 were combined, cold tolerant was most strongest in our experimental conditions. qCYT10 on chromosome 10 was identified in field experiment on both 2015 and 2016. These results may provide useful information for a marker-assisted breeding program to improve cold tolerance in rice.

Bakanae (foolish seedling) disease caused by Gibberella fujikuroi creates serious problems in the foremost rice growing countries. This study was conducted to identify new resistance genetic sources to Bakanae disease. Bioassay showed that 11 varieties including Gwangmyeongbyeo, Hawn, Wonseadaesoo, Erguailai etc. were resistant to bakanae disease among 254 rice germplasm. Mismatch ratio between phenotype on bakanae disease bioassay and allele type of RM9, a SSR marker closely linked the bakanae disease resistant QTL, qBK1, were 38.3%. These results suggest that RM9 might be used for selecting qBK1, but it cannot be used for wide range of rice germplasm. Resistant germplasm in this study might be have resistant genes different from qBK1. The eleven varieties resistant to selected in this study will be used to identify new resistant alleles or genes to improve bakanae disease resistance in rice.