An ancient super allele of the Vrs1 gene driving the recent success in modern barley improvement through optimising spike architecture

Jingye Cheng; Rui Pan; Wenying Zhang; Tianhua He; Chengdao Li

doi:10.1016/j.jia.2025.06.017

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An ancient super allele of the Vrs1 gene driving the recent success in modern barley improvement through optimising spike architecture

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

An ancient super allele of the Vrs1 gene driving the recent success in modern barley improvement through optimising spike architecture

Jingye Cheng, Rui Pan, Wenying Zhang, Tianhua He and Chengdao Li

Journal of Integrative Agriculture, Vol.25(2), pp.602-609

2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jia.2025.06.017

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Abstract

deficiens barley

fine mapping

row types

spike architecture

Vrs1 gene

yield potential

Improved yield potential is the goal of barley domestication and cultivation. During this process, two- and six-rowed barley types emerged and have been utilised in breeding and production. The six-rowed type could produce three times as many grains as its ancestral two-rowed forms, thus dominating barley cultivation for thousands of years. The deficiens form of the two-rowed type, characterised by extremely suppressed lateral spikelets, has gained dominance over the past few decades in barley-growing regions worldwide. We hypothesised that the absence of lateral spikelets in deficiens barley affects spike architecture and spike-related traits, contributing to its superior yield potential of deficiens barley cultivation. Currently, a deficiens barley variety, RGT Planet, is the most popular barley variety in the world. In this study, we used two F2 populations derived from crossing RGT Planet with two canonical two-rowed barley and identified the functional allele Vrs1.t1 associated with deficiens morphology. We observed that the Vrs1.t1 allele may contribute to high yield potential by optimising spike architecture through increased spikelet length, grain number, and grain size. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that the deficiens mutation was likely present from the early stages of barley cultivation in the Fertile Crescent and spread to Ethiopia and beyond with agricultural expansion. We conclude that the ancient deficiens allele Vrs1.t1 has been a critical driver for the recent success of modern barley improvement by optimising spike architecture.

Details

Title: An ancient super allele of the Vrs1 gene driving the recent success in modern barley improvement through optimising spike architecture
Authors/Creators: Jingye Cheng - Murdoch University
Rui Pan - Yangtze University
Wenying Zhang - Yangtze University
Tianhua He - Murdoch University, Centre for Crop and Food Innovation
Chengdao Li - Murdoch University, Centre for Crop and Food Innovation
Publication Details: Journal of Integrative Agriculture, Vol.25(2), pp.602-609
Publisher: Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd.
Number of pages: 8
Identifiers: 991005857588507891
Murdoch Affiliation: Western Crop Genetics Alliance; Centre for Crop and Food Innovation; School of Agricultural Sciences
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Citation topics: No Topic Assigned; No Topic Assigned; No Topic Assigned
Web Of Science research areas: Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
ESI research areas: Agricultural Sciences