Chevalier barley: The influence of a world‐leading malting variety

Abstract

During the 19th century, 'Chevalier', said to have been developed from a single plant found in 1820, was the world-leading malting barley (Hordeum vulgare). The superior malting quality of Chevalier lead to its world-wide spread at the time of the development of the malting industry. In this study, we investigate how this cultivar was spread and adopted to Nordic seed systems of the time. Single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping of up to 155-yr-old museum specimens of historical grains labelled "Chevalier" and of Chevalier accessions preserved in genebanks, in total 282 individuals representing 47 accessions, allowed us to divide the accessions into four categories: True Chevalier, seed mixtures, crosses, and non-Chevaliers. Comparisons with previously genotyped Nordic landraces showed how, in the 19th century, Chevalier seed was mixed with locally produced landrace seed and cultivated together. We suggest that spontaneous outbreeding events gave rise to hybrids which were subsequently selected and propagated when resulting in superior genetic combinations. Such farmer-driven breeding activities would have preceded modern plant breeding but resembled the breeding principles that were later used, even though the scientific understanding of inheritance was not yet known.

Bringing Barley Back: Analysis of Heritage Varieties for Use as Germplasm Sources to Improve Resistance against the Most Devastating, Contemporary Disease in Canada, Fusarium Head Blight (Fusarium graminearum)

“…From the general set, several FHB-resistant varieties were identified as ‘Chevallier’-types or progeny varieties, implying that they may carry related, heritable variation. However, as documented by Hagenblad and Leino [ 22 ], commonly classified ‘Chevalier’ varieties may be in fact genetically distinct as a result of the growth in mixtures, resulting in spontaneous outbreeding and hybridization. For example, they define ‘Chevallier French’ and reputed Chevallier selection ‘Scotch Common’, included in this study, as non-true Chevallier-types in comparison with museum specimens.…”

Unlocking the genetic diversity and population structure of the newly introduced two-row spring European HerItage Barley collecTion (ExHIBiT)

“…Therefore, there are still aspects of European and in particular Northern European barley diversity that have not been fully explored. The ExHIBiT collection contains many historically important malting varieties from Northern Europe, ranging from landraces to elite cultivars and reflecting the diverse breeding practices used throughout the history of Northern Europe (e.g., Chevalier, RGT Planet, Kenia, Quench, Proctor, Carlsberg (Plarr et al, 1963;Hagenblad & Leino, 2022;Nejat, 2022).…”

Major chromosome 5H haplotype switch structures the European two-rowed spring barley germplasm of the past 190 years

“…The first selections from popular spring barley landraces were made in the 1800s in the UK and soon thereafter in other regions of Europe as well (Fischbeck 2003 ). Among these selections, lines such as ‘Chevalier’ and ‘Goldthorpe’ (selections from British landraces ‘Archer’ and ‘Spratt’, respectively), ‘Hana/Hanna’ (selection from Moravian landraces) or ‘Gull’ (selection from landraces from Gotland, Sweden) became widely successful due to their superior agronomic and malting qualities and were distributed across the continent (Fischbeck 2003 ; Hagenblad and Leino 2022 ). At the same time, selections from local landraces were made which were well-adapted to specific environmental conditions and sometimes outcompeted the imported selections but led to a decrease in genetic diversity (Fischbeck 2003 ).…”