International Journal of Plant Research Vol. 1, No. 3, 2015, pp. 88-92 http://www.publicscienceframework.org/journal/ijpr * Corresponding author E-mail address: huseynova-i@botany-az.org (M. Huseynova) Screening of Barley Genotypes for Drought Tolerance Using Molecular Markers M. Huseynova 1, * , S. M. Rustamova 1 , M. Y. Nasrullayeva 2 , J. A. Aliyev 1 1 Institute of Botany, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, 40 Badamdar Highway, Baku AZ, Azerbaijan 2 Institute of Genetic Reseourses, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, 155 Azadliq Avenue, Baku AZ, Azerbaijan Abstract Drought is one of the most important abiotic factors constraining barley production. Drought tolerance of 32 barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) samples of different varieties (21 genotypes-Nutans, 11-Pallidum) and origin have been analyzed with the method of RAPD-PCR. Oligomeric decamer RAPD primers (5′ TCGGCGGTTC 3′) and Р7 (5′ TCGGCGGTTC 3′), associated with drought tolerance have been used. RAPD PCR using P6 marker revealed characteristic loci at 920 bp region in 75% of genotype electrophoretic profiles. Loci were detected at 750 bp region in 78% of the analyzed barley genotypes when using RAPD P7 marker. Comparative analysis of the RAPD spectra showed that characteristic for both markers fragments had been synthesized in 59% of the genotypes (or 19 genotypes). This confirms an existence of a special locus associated with drought tolerance in the barley genotypes. In 6% (2 genotypes) of the studied genotypes characteristic amplification fragments have not been identified with both markers. Keywords Hordeum vulgare L., Drought, PCR, RAPD Markers Received: March 27, 2015 / Accepted: April 10, 2015 / Published online: April 20, 2015 @ 2015 The Authors. Published by American Institute of Science. This Open Access article is under the CC BY-NC license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1. Introduction Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the earliest global domesticated crop plants in the Neolithic Near East (Salamini et al., 2002). Barley belongs to the grass family Poaceae, the tribe Hordeae and the genus Hordeum. Barley has a large genome of 5.1 gigabases, which was completely sequenced in 2012 (Mayer et al., 2012). Today, in terms of area and production worldwide, barley is the fourth most important cereal after wheat, rice and maize. Approximately 75% of barley global yield is used as feed, 20% as raw material for beverages and 5% as food (Sreenivasulu et al., 2008). Barley is widely adapted to adverse environmental conditions and displays much higher tolerance to different environmental stresses than its close relative wheat (Nevo et al., 2012). Drought is one of the most important abiotic factors constraining barley production, causing complete grain failure in severely affected fields (Akash, 2013). Improving crop yield under water deficit environments is an urgent task for crop breeding worldwide. The increasing incidence and importance of drought in relation to crop production has rendered it as a major focus of research for several decades (Budak et al., 2013, Akash, 2013, Ajalli and Salehi, 2012, Altinkut et al., 2003, Bohnert HJ and Jensen., 1996). However, studying drought response is challenged by the complex and quantitative nature of the trait. Drought tolerance is complicated with environmental interactions. In the analysis of a plant’s drought response, the mode, timing, and severity of the dehydration stress and its occurrence with other abiotic and biotic stress factors are significant (Reynolds, 2006). Furthermore, different species, subspecies, and cultivars of crops show variation in their drought tolerance under same conditions, emphasizing the importance of genetic diversity as an underlying factor of