Screening of stable resistant accessions and identification of resistance loci to Barley yellow mosaic virus disease

BACKGROUND: The disease caused by Barley yellow mosaic virus (BaYMV) infection is a serious threat to autumn-sown barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) production in Europe, East Asia and Iran. Due to the rapid diversification of BaYMV strains, it is urgent to discover novel germplasm and genes to assist breeding new varieties with resistance to different BaYMV strains, thus minimizing the effect of BaYMV disease on barley cropping. METHODS: A natural population consisting of 181 barley accessions with different levels of resistance to BaYMV disease was selected for field resistance identification in two separate locations (Yangzhou and Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, China). Additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) analysis was used to identify accessions with stable resistance. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) of BaYMV disease resistance was broadly performed by combining both single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and specific molecular markers associated with the reported BaYMV disease resistance genes. Furthermore, the viral protein genome linked (VPg) sequences of the virus were amplified and analyzed to assess the differences between the BaYMV strains sourced from the different experimental sites. RESULTS: Seven barley accessions with lower standardized Area Under the Disease Progress Steps (sAUDPS) index in every environment were identified and shown to have stable resistance to BaYMV disease in each assessed location. Apart from the reported BaYMV disease resistance genes rym4 and rym5, one novel resistance locus explaining 24.21% of the phenotypic variation was identified at the Yangzhou testing site, while two other novel resistance loci that contributed 19.23% and 19.79% of the phenotypic variation were identified at the Yancheng testing site, respectively. Further analysis regarding the difference in the VPg sequence of the predominant strain of BaYMV collected from these two testing sites may explain the difference of resistance loci differentially identified under geographically distinct regions. Our research provides novel genetic resources and resistance loci for breeding barley varieties for BaMYV disease resistance.