In recent years biotechnology has become complementary to traditional breeding. In the present study, genetic divergence among 12 genotypes of barley was surveyed using DNA markers. Some fragments generated by seven primers of a 10-mer arbitrary sequence were used to study the potential power in different parents with different characteristics and to predict yield performance in the hybrid produced from parental materials. Traits such as biomass weight, plant height, peduncle as well as spike length, peduncle extrusion, yield per plant along with its components of number of seeds per spike and 100-seeds weight, as well as other morphological characters were evaluated. Experimental results, demonstrated that the 12 barley genotypes were divided into groups. Although genetic distance based on RAPD markers has not been significantly correlated with either hybrid performance or heterosis in traits, it has been used to predict hybrid performance with mixed results. It appears to be impossible to predict the hybrid performance from the genetic distance itself. Comparisons of genetic and morphological distance were made through RAPD and morphometric approaches. Experimental results indicated that there were no significant correlations between them.
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