Background

On‑farm replacement of Levantine barley landraces by modern cultivars has reduced locally adapted diversity essential for resilience, quality, and sustainable Mediterranean agriculture. Curated germplasm with documented provenance and comparable phenotyping across environments remains limited.

Aim

Restore a representative landrace panel from Israel and adjacent regions and quantify phenotypic and eco‑geographic variation to prioritize accessions and alleles for conservation and pre‑breeding.

Materials & Approach (brief)

We assembled a panel of 405 barley landraces, primarily from Israel and neighboring regions, together with 17 modern checks, representing approximately 306 original collection sites. The panel is being evaluated across multiple environments in Israel, combined with targeted assays of early root development and genome-wide variant data. These resources are integrated to identify priority accessions and key adaptive traits, supporting conservation and providing a foundation for pre-breeding under Mediterranean conditions.

Key Findings to Date

The collection exhibits wide phenotypic and morphological variation, including rare ideotypes (e.g., awnless spikes, hulless grain, spike disarticulation). Eco‑geographic structuring aligns with aridity and soil contrasts. Several accessions show superior canopy vigor and foliar disease resistance under Mediterranean conditions; early root traits reveal divergent early‑vigor and angle phenotypes.

Impact

• Conservation: prioritized accessions for Israeli Gene Bank deposition and long‑term curation.

• Trait discovery: candidates for drought adaptation, disease resistance, and ideotype development.

• Pre‑breeding: short‑list of lines for crossing and field validation in Mediterranean environments.