In this study, the targetting-induced local lesions in genomes approach was used to identify mutants for genes related to starch metabolism in barley. Starch is the major reserve of plants and serves as primary carbohydrate component in human and livestock diets and has also numerous industrial applications. Mutants for biosynthetic or regulatory genes of starch metabolism often produce starch granules with abnormal morphological and molecular features that could be of interest for technological applications. We report the identification of 29 mutations in five starch-related barley genes (Bmy1, GBSSI, LDA1, SSI and SSII) through the molecular screening of TILLMore, a sodium azide-mutagenized population. Almost all the mutations detected were CG–TA transitions and several (c. 60%) implied a change in amino-acid sequence and therefore possible phenotypic effects. Four mutants showed non-sense or splice-junction alterations, which could drastically affect the protein function.
