Fall
2015
grainswest.com
11
BY KARIN OLAFSON
ID, PLEASE
IDENTIFYINGMALTVARIETIESUSINGGENETICMARKERS
DEVELOPING PROTEIN PROFILES
is a common way to distinguish malting
barley varieties. However, it is not always
the most efficient method. Aaron Beattie,
PhD, an assistant professor at the Univer-
sity of Saskatchewan and a barley breeder
at its Crop Development Centre, is leading
a project to develop a new, more efficient
way to identify and distinguish malting
barley varieties.
Since April 2014, Beattie and his team
have been developing a SNP (single-nucle-
otide polymorphism; pronounced “snip”)
marker technology that quickly, efficiently
and effectively identifies malting barley
varieties. In a nutshell, Beattie’s research
differentiates one barley variety from
another by finding one key difference in
its genetic makeup.
“SNP markers are differences within
the DNA sequence between different vari-
ants of barley,” explained Beattie. “In this
project, we’re interested in identifying any
kind of difference in the DNA sequence
between the barley varieties.”
The project began with Beattie and his
team collecting pure seed of malting bar-
ley varieties from breeders and companies
representing them. Part of the varieties’
genome was sequenced, and the main
scientist on the project, Tajinder Grewal,
began working his way through the data
to identify SNPs specific to each malting
barley variety. There will always be one
SNP marker that is unique to each variety,
making differentiation easy.
“You could think of this as a Human
Genome Project for barley,” said Beattie.
“In that project, they’re looking at genetic
differences between people. We’re doing
the same thing in barley, although only
analyzing a portion of the genome rather
than the whole barley genome.”
This works much like a naming system.
The hope is that a unique SNP marker will
be identified for all—or as many as possi-
ble—of the 10 malting barley varieties on
the Canadian Malting Barley Technical
Centre’s list of recommended malting
barley varieties.
According to Beattie, the ultimate goal
of the project is quality assurance. “Canada
has a reputation for high-quality barley, and
this ties into maintaining that high-quality
standard that we have,” said Beattie. “I
think if both the customers in Canada and
the farmers in Canada have more confi-
dence in what they’re buying and selling
from one another, it will make the whole
system work a little bit smoother.”
Todd Hyra, business manager of SeCan
Western Canada, is also enthusiastic about
what the research means for the Canadian
barley industry.
“The faster and more efficiently we can
identify and distinguish products in grain
cargos, the better off our industry overall
is,” said Hyra. “When our customers get a
better product because we’ve got a system
that’s backed by an efficient measurement
system, such as the SNP markers, it helps
the barley industry and it trickles down to
us at the seed level.”
Hyra added that, if the research lowers
costs and allows for more tests to be done
in a more efficient manner, it helps the
industry at a breeding level as well as at a
commercial level.
Beattie and his team have successfully
identified SNP markers for three barley
varieties—markers for CDC Copeland
and CDC Meredith have been already
been identified—and he says the team is
close to uncovering three more. Until the
project comes to a close in 2017, the team
will continue to work its way through the
list of 10 common malting barley varieties
outlined by the Canadian Malting Barley
Technical Centre.
But the work won’t be done then.
“Even beyond the project, this kind of
research is something that would need
to continue, because as new varieties of
barley are developed, you need to make
sure the markers you have still differen-
tiate the variety you think it is from any-
thing new,” said Beattie. “It’s an ongoing
process.”
Quality assurance is the ultimate goal of the malt identification project, according to project lead Aaron Beattie.
Photo:Michael Interisano
