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The processing quality of cereals can be modified by altering the structural grain constituents or the enzyme activities that mobilize storage reserves of the seeds. In order to complement the malt enzyme spectrum, a gene encoding for a thermotolerant fungal endo-(1,4)-ß-glucanase was introduced into two barley cultivars, Kymppi and Golden Promise. The gene was expressed in the seeds during germination, thus providing a thermotolerant enzyme that is active under mashing conditions. The amount of thermotolerant ß-glucanase produced by the seeds (ca. 0.025% soluble seed protein) has been shown to be sufficient to reduce wort viscosity by decreasing the soluble ß-glucan content. For the safe commercial cultivation of transgenic plants risk assessment of their cultivation is needed. In our study experimental estimates of the transgene flow from transgenic barley by pollen dispersal were produced. Field trials were conducted during the summers of 1996 and 1997. A transgenic barley line homozygous for the gene encoding for neomycin phosphotransferase was used as a source of pollen and male-sterile barley lines as recipients. In order to be able to transform the cross-fertilization frequencies to corresponding values of normal male-fertile barley, plots of normal barley were also included in the experimental plan. On the basis of our study, cross-fertilization in male-sterile recipient barley is possible with very low frequency up to 50 meters from the donor area. However, the frequency dramatically decreases with distance and due to self-pollination the possibility of cross-fertilization remains very low in normal cultivated barley.

In recent years particle bombardment has become the most used method for gene transfer to barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Transformation efficiency depends greatly on the ability of the target material to regenerate into green plants. In this work we improved the regeneration efficiency of polyembryogenic cultures of barley (cv. Kymppi) by optimizing the nitrogen and copper concentrations in the media.

The malting quality of two barley cultivars, Kymppi and Golden Promise, was modified to better meet the requirements of the brewing process. The egl1 gene, coding for fungal thermotolerant endo-1,4-beta-glucanase (EGI, cellulase), was transferred to the cultivars using particle bombardment, and transgenic plants were regenerated on bialaphos selection. Integration of the egl1 gene was confirmed by Southern blot hybridization. The transgenic seeds were screened for the expression of the heterologous EGI. Under the high-pI alpha-amylase promoter, the egl1 gene was expressed during germination. The heterologous enzyme was thermotolerant at 65 degrees C for 2 h, thus being suitable for mashing conditions. The amount of heterologous EGI produced by the seeds (ca. 0.025% of soluble seed protein), has been shown to be sufficient to reduce wort viscosity by decreasing the soluble beta-glucan content. A decrease in the soluble beta-glucan content in the wort improves the filtration rate of beer.

Suspension-cultured barley cells responded to treatments with crude yeast extract and purified glucan preparation by rapidly and transiently (4 h postelicitation) inducing L-phenylalanine ammonia-lyase activity. Similarly, treatment of cell cultures with chitosan resulted in increased phenylalanine ammonia-lyase activity 2–4 h after elicitation, whereas a mycelium preparation of a fungal pathogen, Bipolaris sorokiniana, and purified chitin caused a more delayed induction of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (8 h postelicitation). The most abundant of the plant cell wall degrading enzymes produced by Bipolaris sorokiniana, β-1,4-xylanase, had only a weak elicitor activity in barley cells suggesting that fungal cell wall components rather than the hydrolytic enzymes secreted by the fungus function as recognizable components that cause barley cells to induce defences. Treatment of the elicited cells with a phenylalanine ammonia-lyase inhibitor, α-aminooxy-β-phenylpropionic acid, resulted in the superinduction of the enzyme indicating the blocking of the feedback regulation mechanisms, whereas in the presence of 1 mM trans-cinnamic acid the elicitor-induction of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase was completely inhibited. Elicitor treatments increased the accumulation of wall-bound phenolics as evidenced by phloroglucinol-HCl staining and thioglycolic acid methods. However, α-aminooxy-β-phenylpropionic acid applied in combination with the elicitor did not prevent the accumulation of phenolics in barley cell walls. This suggested that phenylalanine ammonia-lyase might not play an important role in the synthesis wall-bound phenolic compounds in barley. However, cinnamic acid, whether applied alone or together with the elicitor, increased the amount of wall-bound phenolics in suspension-cultured barley cells.

Hordeum, distributed worldwide in temperate zones, is the second largest genus in the tribe Triticeae and includes diploid, tetraploid, and hexaploid species. We determined, by DAPI staining and flow cytometry, the nuclear DNA content for 35 accessions of the genus Hordeum, from a total of 19 species, including specimens of 2 cultivars and 2 landraces of Hordeum vulgare ssp. vulgare as well as samples of 12 Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum populations. Genome sizes ranged from 5.69 to 9.41 pg for the G1nuclei of the diploids, and from 13.13 to 18.36 pg for those of the tetraploids. This constitutes a 1.7-fold variation for the diploids, contrasting with a 4% variation previously reported. For H. vulgare ssp. vulgare (barley), the accessions examined differed by 18%. These variations in genome size cannot be correlated with meiotic pairing groups (I, H, X, Y) or with proposed phylogenetic relationships within the genus. Genome size variation between barley accessions cannot be related to status as cultivated or wild, or to climatic or geological gradients. We suggest these data may indicate rapid but sporadic changes in genome size within the genus. Key words : barley, Hordeum, Triticeae, genome size, flow cytometry.

Cereals are the most important group of plants for human nutrition and animal feed. Partially due to the commercial value of crop plants, there has been an ever-increasing interest in using modern biotechnological methods for the improvement of the characteristics of cereals during the past decade. The rapid progress in molecular biology, plant cell culture techniques, and gene transfer technology has resulted in successful transformations of all the major cereals—maize, rice, wheat, and barley. This brings the biotechnological methods closer to the routine also in barley breeding. In this article, the current status of barley genetic engineering, including the patent situation, is reviewed. The needs, aims, and possible applications of genetic engineering in barley breeding are discussed.

Transgenic, fertile barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) from the Finnish elite cultivar Kymppi was obtained by particle bombardment of immature embryos. Immature embryos were bombarded to the embryonic axis side and grown to plants without selection. Neomycin phosphotransferase II (NPTII) activity was screened in small plantlets. One out of a total of 227 plants expressed the transferred nptII gene. This plant has until now produced 98 fertile spikes (T0), and four of the 90 T0 spikes analyzed to date contained the nptII gene. These shoots were further analyzed and they expressed the transferred gene. From green grains, embryos were isolated and grown to plantlets (T1). The four transgenic shoots of Toivo (the T0 plant) produced 25 plantlets as T1 progeny. Altogether fifteen of these T1 plants carried the transferred nptII gene as detected with the PCR technique, fourteen of which expressed the nptII gene. The integration and inheritance of the transferred nptII gene was confirmed by Southern blot hybridization. Although present as several copies, the transferred gene was inherited as a single Mendelian locus into the T2 progeny.

Nuclear DNA content was determined in nuclei isolated from needles, stems and roots of in vitro grown seedlings and from megagametophytes and embryo of mature seeds in three accessions of Pinus sylvestris L. One accession was from Inari, northern Finland at timber line, and two accessions were from the Alpine region in Italy. Nuclei were mechanically isolated by a chopping method, stained with propidium iodide, and DNA content was determined using an EPICS PROFILE laser flow cytometer. Nuclei isolated from leaves of barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Sultan; 2C=11.12 pg) were used as an internal standard for measurement of pine nuclei. Mean 1C nuclear DNA content of P. sylvestris was 27.88 pg as determined from megagametophyte tissue. Mean 2C value was 52.25 pg as determined from stem and root tissue, and 55.58 pg as determined from embryo tissue. The ratio of 2C to 1C value was 1.87 and 1.99, respectively. Extracts of nuclei from needles contained propidium iodide-absorbing debris which may have interfered with measurements and resulted in lower 2C values than those obtained from stem and root.

The culture of isolated microspores of barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Kymppi, an elite malting barley cultivar) was studied. A careful choice of culture steps resulted in an average regeneration frequency of 300 green plants per starting material spike. Strong seasonal variation in regeneration capacity was observed. The choice of a cold pretreatment method affected the viability of microspores. A cold pretreatment of the collected starting material at +4°C for 4 weeks was needed for the efficient regeneration of green plants from isolated microspore cultures. Glutamine omission from and copper additions to microspore culture were studied. The omission of glutamine did not affect the number of regenerated green plants but did result in an increase in the number of regenerated albino plants. The addition of copper did not improve the regeneration capacity of isolated barley microspores. Transformation by particle bombardment of isolated microspores did not result in the production of transgenic plants.

Recent developments in genetic engineering and molecular biology have enabled the production of transgenic plants with improved characteristics, or cell and tissue cultures with altered or improved metabolic activity. However, no universally applicable gene transfer method has hitherto been established for plant transformation. The monocotyledonous plants, including grasses and cereals, have proved to be recalcitrant to genetic engineering. They do not belong to the natural host range of the efficient gene vector Agrobacterium, which is widely used for transformation of dicotyledonous plants. Particle bombardment, developed by Sanford et al. (1), is a physical gene transfer method without target material limitations. Using this method, transgenic plants have been produced successfully from all major cereals (2-8). Protoplast-mediated gene transfer methods, e.g., electroporation or polyethelene glycol (PEG) treatment, have long been hampered by the recalcitrance of important cereal crop species to the regeneration of plants from these protoplasts. However, success has recently been reported in this field, even with elite cultivars of barley (9). In this chapter, particle bombardment is used as a means to obtain stable transgenic barley cultures, which can be used for production of a heterologous enzyme, i.e., the endo-[3-glucanase (EGI) of Trichoderma reesei, in amounts sufficient to conduct studies on its properties. Particle bombardment results in a mixed population of transgenic and untransformed cells, which leads to the need for efficient selection and screening in order to isolate a pure and stable clone. In this respect, a protoplast-mediated gene transfer method would offer an attractive alternative. All regenerated callus clusters would originate from a

Transgenic plant cell cultures have a potential for production and secretion of important proteins and peptides. To assess the possibilities of using a stable barley suspension culture for secretion of heterologous proteins in active form, we expressed the cDNA of the thermostableβ-glucanase (EGI) ofTrichoderma reesei in barley suspension cells. The cDNA coding for EGI and its signal sequence was placed under the control of the CaMV 35S promoter and the construction was transferred to the cells by particle bombardment. Stably transformed lines were obtained by selecting for a cotransformed antibiotic resistance marker. The expression of EGI cDNA led to accumulation of EGI in the culture medium, as shown by analysis with EGI-specific antibodies. Enzymatic assays confirmed that the EGI secreted by the suspension cells retained its activity and thermostable character. Furthermore, it was shown that the enzyme produced by the transgenic suspension culture could be used for degradation of solubleβ-glucans during mashing.

Transgenic barley plants (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Kymppi) were obtained by particle bombardment of various tissues. Immature embryos and microspore-derived cultures were bombarded with gold particles coated with plasmid DNA carrying the gene coding for neomycin phosphotransferase II (NPTII), together with plasmid DNA containing the gene for β-glucuronidase (GUS).

Members of the genus Betula are deciduous trees, bushes, or shrubs with brown branches and a trunk, the upper part of which is covered with smooth, silver-white to white bark and the base with blackish, fissured bark. Birches are monoecious: the purple-brown male flowers are housed is drooping catkins and the green female catkins are small and erect but hang when mature. The fruit is a winged achene (Jury 1978).

Protoplasts isolated from calli derived from cultured microspores of barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Kymppi, an elite cultivar) were transformed with the neomycin phosphotransferase marker gene (nptII) by electroporation. Screening of the regenerated plants for the NPTII activity by gel assay resulted in three positive signals. Southern blot analysis and NPTII assays of second and third generation plants confirmed the genomic integration of the transferred gene and that the new trait was inherited by the progeny.

Suspension culture cells of barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv Pokko) were stably transformed with two separate plasmids containing genes coding for neomycin phosphotransferase II and β-glucuronidase, respectively. Transformed cultures were selected with the antibiotic GeneticinR. Enzymatic activity was tested in the GeneticinR resistant cultures, and in 96% of them neomycin phosphotransferase could be detected. The non-selected marker, detected as β-glucuronidase activity, was expressed in 40% of the resistant cultures. Stable transformation was confirmed with Southern blot hybridization.

Transgenic barley plants (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Kymppi) were obtained by particle bombardment of various tissues. Immature embryos and microspore-derived cultures were bombarded with gold particles coated with plasmid DNA carrying the gene coding for neomycin phosphotransferase II (NPTII), together with plasmid DNA containing the gene for β-glucuronidase (GUS).Bombarded immature embryos were grown to plants without selection and NPTII activity was screened in small plantlets. One plant proved to be transgenic (T0). This chimeric plant passed the transferred nptII gene to its T1 progeny. The presence of the nptII gene was demonstrated by the PCR technique and enzyme activity was analyzed by an NPTII gel assay. Four T0 spikes and 15 T1 offspring were transgenic. The integration and inheritance was confirmed by Southern blot hybridization. Transgenic T2 and T3 plants were produced by isolating embryos from green grains of transgenic T1 and T2 plants, respectively and growing them to plants. After selfing, the ratio of transgenic to non-transgenic T2 offspring was shown to follow the rule of Mendelian inheritance. The general performance of transgenic plants was normal and no reduction in fertility was observed.Microspore-derived cultures were bombarded one and four weeks after microspore isolation. After bombardment, cultures were grown either with or without antibiotic selection (geneticin R or kanamycin). When cultures were grown without selection and regenerated plants were transferred to kanamycin selection in rooting phase, one out of a total of about 1500 plants survived. This plant both carried and expressed the transferred nptII gene. The integration was confirmed by Southern blot hybridization. This plant was not fertile.