The characterisation of traditional barley varieties from North Africa is promising with respect to detect traits linked with resilience to drought. Nine Algerian barley varieties comprising the economically relevant local landraces Saïda183 and Tichedrett were genotyped by random amplifying polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and by Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers to get insight into their phylogenetic relationship and to compare the efficiency of the two approaches. The SSR markers were chosen such that all chromosomes of barley were represented by at least one marker. In addition, a principal component analysis (PCA) of morpho-agronomical traits was conducted. We found that the phylogeny based on the RAPD markers reflected the geographical distribution of the tested varieties, while the phylogeny based on the SSR markers reflected the pedigree. Among the RAPD markers, the maximal polymorphism information content was obtained for BY14 with a value of 0.82, for the SSR markers, Bmg13 was most informative with a value of 0.60. The similarity matrix used to the construct the phylogenetic tree, inferred a close relationship (Jaccard Index 0.8 based on RAPD markers) between the accessions Fouara and Oued-Athmania occurring in close vicinity. The SSR markers group the autochthonous varieties Saïda183 and Tichedrett together with a Jaccard Index of 0.8. The close phylogenetic relationship between Saïda183 and Tichedrett is also supported by the PCA of morphological and agronomic traits. Our data underpin the diversity of Algerian barley varieties and lend support to the autochthonous origin of these two Algerian landraces.

The gradients in photosynthetic and carbohydrate metabolism which persist within the fully expanded second leaf of barley (Hordeum vulgare) were examined. Although all regions of the leaf blade were green and photosynthetically active, the basal 5 cm, representing approximately 20% of the leaf area, retained some characteristics of sink tissue. The leaf blade distal from the leaf sheath exhibited characteristics typical of source tissue; the activities of sucrolytic enzymes (invertase and sucrose synthase) were relatively low, whilst that of sucrose phosphate synthase was high. These regions of the leaf accumulated sucrose throughout the photoperiod and starch only in the second half of the photoperiod whilst hexose sugars remained low. By contrast the leaf blade proximal to the leaf sheath retained relatively high activities of sucrolytic enzymes (especially soluble, acid invertase) whilst sucrose phosphate synthase activity was low. Glucose, as well as sucrose, accumulated throughout the photoperiod. Although starch accumulated in the second half of the photoperiod, a basal level of starch was present throughout the photoperiod, by contrast with the rest of the leaf. The 14CO2 feeding experiments indicated that a constant amount of photosynthate was partitioned towards starch in this region of the leaf irrespective of irradiance. These findings are interpreted as the base of the leaf blade acting as a localized sink for carbohydrate as a result of sucrose hydrolysis by acid invertase.