Evaluation of Czech spring malting barleys with respect to the β-amylase allele incidence

Strong enzymatic activities in the germinating barley grain, together with protein and starch content, are crucial for high extraction values in the resulting malt and, therefore, barley malting quality. The efficient characterization of registered barley cultivars and genetic resources with respect to one of the relevant thermostability enzymes (β‐amylase) is an essential requirement. The template‐directed dye‐terminator incorporation (TDI) assay: based on flourescence resonance energy transfer (TDI‐FRET) ( Chen et al. 1995 ) was used to detect single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the β‐amylase coding sequence resulting in low (Sd2L), intermediate (Sd1) and high (Sd2H and Sd3) thermostability enzyme across 84 Czech barley cultivars and genetic resources used over a period of time in the Czech Republic. The incidence of different alleles has changed during the last 100 years. Also the new resources with high thermostabile β‐amylase were identified. They can be used effectively to breed for malting quality improvement.