Brigid Meints

Oregon State University | OSU · Department of Crop and Soil Science

Threshability, defined here as the propensity of grains to lose their hull after harvest, is a key trait in naked barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). While threshability is a defining characteristic of naked grains and has been found to be associated with grain size and shape, its genetic architecture is poorly described. The goals of this study were to i...

This study aimed to understand how genetics and environment influence organic winter naked barley composition and functionality, and to identify traits that might effectively categorize basic physicochemical functionality of food barley. Across three years, two locations, and 15 genotypes, genotype significantly influenced all 10 food-related trait...

Plant breeding is central to agriculture, and shifts in plant breeding practices (e.g., hybrid development) and selection goals (e.g., response to synthetic fertilizer) have catalyzed monumental and persistent changes in agricultural production systems of all scales with social, political, economic, and environmental repercussions. While plant bree...

Plant breeding is central to agriculture, and shifts in plant breeding practices (e.g., hybrid development) and selection goals (e.g., response to synthetic fertilizer) have catalyzed monumental and persistent changes in agricultural production systems of all scales with social, political, economic, and environmental repercussions. While plant bree...

Naked barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) grain threshes freely from its hull during harvesting and cleaning. Much of the available naked barley germplasm is unadapted to U.S. barley growing regions, and few genotypes have been selected to thrive under organic systems. The goal of this research was to characterize a set of spring naked barley genotypes for...

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is one of the oldest known domesticated crops and the fourth most widely grown cereal crop in the world. Barley has three principal end-uses: feed, food, and malt. Each end-use of barley requires different characteristics, but hull adherence and beta-glucan content are important for each of the three classes. Naked (hull-le...

‘Lightning’(Reg. no. CV‐374, PI 698654), experimental designation DH130910, is a two‐row facultative barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) released by Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station in 2020. It was bred for fall planting and is well adapted to the U.S. Pacific Northwest and New York State. Because it does not require vernalization for a timely vegeta...

Barley fits well into many different organic farming systems. It can be grown as either a winter or spring annual crop in many temperate regions. Barley can be used for food, malting, or animal feed, providing growers with diverse marketing opportunities. Despite its advantages, many organic farmers in the USA have not adopted barley as a regular c...

Barley grain can have high concentrations of the heavy metal cadmium. Identification of a gene controlling cadmium accumulation in barley offers a path to averting unsafe consumption by humans.

Changing production scenarios resulting from unstable climatic conditions are challenging crop improvement efforts. A deeper and more practical understanding of plant genetic resources is necessary if these assets are to be used effectively in developing improved varieties. In general, current varieties and potential varieties have a narrow genetic...

Stripe rust (incited by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. hordei) and stem rust (incited by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici) are two of the most important diseases affecting barley. Building on prior work involving the introgression of the resistance genes rpg4/Rpg5 into diverse genetic backgrounds and the discovery of additional QTLs for stem rust resi...

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is a versatile crop with three principal end‐uses: feed, food, and malt. Each end‐use of barley requires different characteristics, but hull adherence and β‐glucan content are important for each of the three classes. Most of the barley grown in the United States has an adhering hull, but a small percentage of the barley gro...

Stem rust (incited by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici) is a devastating disease of wheat and barley in many production areas. The widely virulent African P. graminis f. sp. tritici race TTKSK is of particular concern, because most cultivars are susceptible. To prepare for the possible arrival of race TTKSK in North America, we crossed a range of b...

Based on prior research that showed significant genetic differences between barley genotypes for beer sensory descriptors, the effects of degree of malt modification on these descriptors were assessed in two experiments. The first experiment involved sensory assessment of nano-beers made from micromalts of Golden Promise, Full Pint, 34 doubled hapl...

This research tested the hypothesis that barley genotype can affect beer flavor and assessed the relative contributions of genotype and location to beer sensory descriptors. Golden Promise, Full Pint, 34 of their doubled haploid progeny, and CDC Copeland were grown at three locations in Oregon, U.S.A. Grain from these trials was micromalted and the...

Key message: The genetic substitution of transformation amenability alleles from 'Golden Promise' can facilitate the development of transformation-efficient lines from recalcitrant barley cultivars. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) cv. 'Golden Promise' is one of the most useful and well-studied cultivars for genetic manipulation. In a previous report, we...

‘Buck’ (Reg. No. CV-363, PI 682744) is a naked (hull-less), sixrow barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivar with winter growth habit. The cultivar was released by the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station in 2015. The name Buck was chosen because the cultivar is naked. Prior to being named, Buck was tested under the experimental designation 09OR-86. I...

Barley breeding is essential for the provision of varieties optimized for disease resistance, agronomic performance and for utilization as malting, food or feed barleys. Selection for malting quality is difficult as there are many genes involved. Nevertheless, much is now known about the genetics of the barley genome, and marker-assisted selection...

Barley is one of the oldest known domesticated crops. Originally cultivated for human consumption, other end-uses have gained importance over the millennia. Today, barley is the fourth most important cereal crop in the world and is mainly used as animal feed or malted for brewing and distilling. Wheat and rice have largely replaced barley as a stap...

Barley breeding is essential for the provision of varieties optimized for disease resistance, agronomic performance and for utilization as malting, food or feed barleys. Selection for malting quality is difficult as there are many genes involved. Nevertheless, much is now known about the genetics of the barley genome, and marker-assisted selection...

#STRKR (Reg. No. GP-208, PI 674325) is a hulless, six-row barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) germplasm composed of the bulk of three full-sib lines, two of which have winter growth habit and one of which has facultative growth habit. The germplasm was released by the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station in 2014. The three sister lines from the Oregon St...

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) has been cultivated for human consumption for millennia. However, most North Americans do not regularly consume barley as a foodstuff. In the last decade, there has been renewed interest in barley production for human consumption. A number of quality traits are used to estimate nutritional value and are useful for food p...

The simultaneous availability of unique germplasm resources and cost-effective high-throughput genotyping allows for accelerated genome exploration and gene discovery. Our germplasm – the Oregon Promise population – is an array of 200 barley doubled haploids developed from the cross of Full Pint x Golden Promise. The spring 2-row parents have contr...

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is an important component of heart-healthy whole grain diets because it contains β-glucan. All current US barley varieties with high β-glucan are spring habit and have waxy starch. Winter varieties have agronomic advantages but require low-temperature tolerance (LTT). Vernalization sensitivity (VS) is associated with higher...