LAUSR

The genetic diversity among 14 barley accessions was evaluated using seven designed primers based on long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons derived from the barley genome. LTR primers amplified 96 bands of < 100- 1500 bp, of which 84 were polymorphic. The number of polymorphic fragments ranged from 5 (LTR, LTR1 and LTR6150) to 18 (Sukkula) with an average of 9.33. The highest marker index (MI) was observed with the primer Nikita (3.93) and the lowest with the primer LTR2 (1.05), with an average MI of 2.28 per primer. The insertion patterns of retrotransposones have interesting implications for genome organization in Hordeum. The Shannon diversity index with markers obtained on the accessions level was 0.45. Barely accessions are clustered according to their pedigree and caryopsis character (hulled or naked caryopsis). This study demonstrates the efficiency of IRAP markers as a genetic tool for selection of suitable accessions for breeding programs.