Wild and Traditional Barley Genomic Resources as a Tool for Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Biotic Relations

Abstract

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the main crops cultivated all over the world. As for other cereals, throughout the centuries barley was subjected by human breeding to genetic erosion phenomena, which guaranteed improved yields in organized (and then mechanized) agriculture; on the other hand, this selection weakened the ability of barley to survive under adverse environments. Currently, it is clear that climate change requires an urgent availability of crop varieties able to grow under stress conditions, namely limited irrigation, salinity, high temperatures, and other stresses. In this context, an important role could be played by wild relatives and landraces selected by farmers, particularly in specific field areas and/or climatic conditions. In this review, we investigated the origin of barley and the potentialities of wild varieties and landraces in different contexts, and their resilience to abiotic stress. The data obtained from Next Generation Sequencing technologies were examined to highlight the critical aspects of barley evolution and the most important features for abiotic stress tolerance. Furthermore, the potential of appropriate mycorrhiza is discussed under the view of the essential role played by these symbioses in field crops. The abilities of specific barley wild varieties and landraces may represent novel opportunities and suggest innovative strategies for the improvement of abiotic tolerance in crops and particularly in barley.