Abstract: Barley seeds were treated under different high hydrostatic pressures and were kept for 2 h.Compared with those of control, both germination rate and seedling rate decreased considerably with pressure increasing, all barley seeds were dead after treatment under 200 MPa. The above results show that high hydrostatic pressure could affect the seeds germination, seedling growth. Plant growth was inhibited for treated barley during the early growth stage of seedling. The genetic variation of different high hydrostatic pressure treated barley seeds was investigated by RAPD and ISSR analysis, 21 ISSR and 19 RAPD primers generated 391 and 229 bands respectively, of which 49.93% and 58.59% were polymorphic respectively. For P₂ and P₃, 112 and 113 bands were generated, ISSR analysisindicates that the mean absolute distance coefficient between the original breed and P₂ is 0.136 1, while that between the original breed and P₃ is 0.116 5. RAPD analysis demonstrates that the mean absolute distance coefficient between the original breed and P₂ is 0.151 3, while that between the original breed and P₃ is 0.195 9. ISSR and RAPD analyses of these two mutants and the original breeds reveal that there are significantly polymorphism between the two mutants and the original breed.

Key words: high hydrostatic pressure, barley, ISSR, RAPD