Genetic insights into morphometric inflorescence traits of wheat

Abstract

Key message Modifying morphometric inflorescence traits is important for increasing grain yield in wheat . Mapping revealed nine QTL, including new QTL and a new allele for the q locus, controlling wheat spike morphometric traits . Abstract To identify loci controlling spike morphometric traits, namely spike length (SL), internode length (IL), node number per spike (NPS), and node density (ND), we studied 146 Recombinant Inbred Lines of tetraploid wheat ( Triticum turgidum L.) derived from standard spike and spike-branching mutant parents. Phenotypic analyses of spike morphometric traits showed low genetic coefficients of variation, resulting in high heritabilities. The phenotypic correlation between NPS with growing degree days (GDD) suggested the importance of GDD in the determination of node number in wheat. The major effect QTL for GDD or heading date was mapped to chromosome 7BS carrying the flowering time gene, Vrn3 - B1 . Mapping also identified nine QTL controlling spike morphometric traits. Most of these loci controlled more than a single trait, suggesting a close genetic interrelationship among spike morphometric traits. For example, this study identified a new QTL, QND . ipk - 4AL , controlling ND (up to 17.6% of the phenotypic variance), IL (up to 11% of the phenotypic variance), and SL (up to 20.8% of the phenotypic variance). Similarly, the major effect QTL for IL was mapped to the q locus. Sequencing of the Q / q gene further revealed a new q allele, q del - 5A , in spike-branching accessions possessing a six base pair deletion close to the miR172 target site. The identification of q del - 5A suggested that the spike-branching tetraploid wheats are double mutants for the spikelet meristem (SM) identity gene, i.e., branched head t ( TtBH t ), and the q gene, which is believed to be involved in the SM indeterminacy complex in wheat. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00122-019-03305-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Quantitative trait loci for agronomic traits in tetraploid wheat for enhancing grain yield in Kazakhstan environments

“…A different result was recorded when MTAs in this study were compared with known QTL for these five traits in previously published reports. The SL is one of the fundamental traits in spike architecture, and not only directly influences grain yield [55], but also significantly associated with HD [56]. This study confirms the significant relationship between SL and HD in durum wheat (P < 0.001), and four out of thirteen MTAs for SL here were associated with HD in durum wheat (Figs 2 and 3).…”

Genetic Characterization of Multiple Components Contributing to Fusarium Head Blight Resistance of FL62R1, a Canadian Bread Wheat Developed Using Systemic Breeding

“…The present study also found that this region has a paracentric inversion when comparing the genetic order of our map to the physical position of this region in the CS Ref 1.0 assembly. Wolde et al (2019) mapped the TB-A1, which may have arisen from translocation of TEOSINTE BRANCHED1 (TB1) from the 4DS region to the 4AL region between 629.3 and 634.8 Mb, at almost the same position as we identified the 4AL FHB QTL. TB1 is known to play a role in controlling morphometric inflorescence traits in wheat, and we have previously identified QTL for spike density and flowering time that colocalize to the region (Zhang et al, 2018).…”

“…Flowering time is largely thought of as controlling FHB infection through disease escape. However, it has recently become clear that the flowering period is also a key factor for wheat spikelet development, with many pleiotropic genes/QTL influencing the timing of flowering and development of spikes (Lewis et al, 2008;Shaw et al, 2013;Liu et al, 2019;Wolde et al, 2019;Chen et al, 2020). This shows that the influence of flowering time on FHB resistance is likely to be much more complex than previously expected.…”

Several stably expressed QTL for spike density of common wheat (Triticum aestivum) in multiple environments

“…Three well‐known major genes affecting SD, that is Q , C and S1 , were located on chromosomes 5A, 2D and 3D, respectively (Prabhakararao, ; Kato, Sawada, & Miura, ; Liu, Liu, Dong, & Sun, ; Paillard et al, ; Sourdille et al, ; Xu et al, ). It is documented that flowering period (FP), controlled by three main groups of genes: vernalization ( Vrn ), photoperiod ( Ppd ) and earliness per‐se ( Eps ) (Distelfeld, Li, & Dubcovsky, ; Guedira et al, ; Nestor et al, ), is also a key factor for spikelet development in wheat (Guo, Chen, Roeder, Ganal, & Schnurbusch, ; Lewis, Faricelli, Appendino, Valarik, & Dubcovsky, ; Wolde, Trautewig, Mascher, & Schnurbusch, ; Zhang et al, ). Additionally, SD is also significantly related to plant height (PH) and spikelet number per spike (SNS) (Boden et al, ; Shaw, Turner, Herry, Griffiths, & Laurie, ; Worland et al, ).…”