Winter-Hardy Barley As a Strategy for Dealing With Drought.

The challenges of climate change demand a plant breeding response if barley is to continue to function as the essential source of malt for brewing and as an increasingly important source of food and feed. Barley is an excellent candidate for improved drought tolerance, as it has historically been the Triticeae grain of choice for low moisture conditions. Breeding for better use of available moisture and exploitation of winter precipitation is a complimentary strategy to selection for drought tolerance per se. Fall-sown barley will require varying degrees of low temperature tolerance in such applications, particularly as production moves into higher latitudes. We have used both biparental and association mapping QTL tools to identify determinants of low temperature tolerance in barley and this information informs marker-assisted and genomic selection breeding strategies. Results from characterization and selection experiments will be presented.