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Earliness per se quantitative trait loci and their interaction with Vrn-B1 locus in a spring wheat population

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Abstract

In the spring wheat-growing regions of western Canada, early maturity is an important trait for timely harvest to avoid frost damage, and associated harvest and post-harvest problems. Earliness is genetically regulated by vernalization, photoperiod, earliness per se genes, and complex gene interactions. In this study, we explored the effect of these gene complexes on the expression of 11 agronomic traits in the CDC Teal × CDC Go Canadian western red spring wheat-mapping population. The population of 187 recombinant inbred lines was genotyped with 341 DArT polymorphic markers and a functional Vrn-B1 marker, and phenotyped over 3 years in replicated trials. The dominant allele of Vrn-B1 reduced the number of days to heading, flowering and maturity, and increased leaf color concentration and plant height, but did not affect grain yield in the presence of common genetic backgrounds with dominant Vrn-A1a and Ppd-D1 alleles at two epistatic loci, Vrn-A1 and Ppd-D1. A total of 21 QTLs were identified for all phenotypic traits recorded, except plant height and grain protein content. Two earliness per se QTLs were mapped on chromosomes 1A (QEps.dms-1A) and 4A (QEps.dms-4A) in all three growing seasons, contributing 15–27 and 8–10 %, respectively, to the total genetic variation in days to maturity. The two earliness QTLs and Vrn-B1 exhibited additive interaction. Lines carrying dominant alleles at these three loci headed, flowered and matured 1.7, 1.9 and 4 days earlier, respectively, but yielded 0.43 t ha−1 less than lines with recessive alleles.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge and thank Klaus Strenzke, Glen Hawkins, Lisa Raatz, Fabiana Dias, Alex Pswarayi, Joe Back, Ivan Adamyk, Henry Song, Graham Collier, Muhammad Asif and Neshat Pazooki for technical assistance. This research was supported by grants to the University of Alberta wheat breeding program from the Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund, Western Grains Research Foundation Endowment Fund and an NSERC Discovery Grant to D. Spaner. This work was conducted in part within the project “Canadian Triticum Advancement through Genomics (CTAG)”. We would like to acknowledge “CTAG” funding provided by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, Western Grains Research Foundation, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Genome Canada and Genome Alberta. Hua Chen received a scholarship from the China Scholarship Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, 4-10 Ag/Forestry Centre, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2P5, Canada

    Hua Chen, Muhammad Iqbal, Enid Perez-Lara, Rong-Cai Yang & Dean Spaner

  2. Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, #307, J.G. O’Donoghue Building, 7000 - 113 Street, Edmonton, AB, T6H 5T6, Canada

    Rong-Cai Yang

  3. Department of Plant Sciences, Crop Development Centre, University of Saskatchewan, 51 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5A8, Canada

    Curtis Pozniak

  4. National Institute for Genomics and Advanced Biotechnology, National Agricultural Research Centre, Islamabad, 45500, Pakistan

    Muhammad Iqbal

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  1. Hua Chen
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  2. Muhammad Iqbal
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  3. Enid Perez-Lara
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Correspondence to Muhammad Iqbal.

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Chen, H., Iqbal, M., Perez-Lara, E. et al. Earliness per se quantitative trait loci and their interaction with Vrn-B1 locus in a spring wheat population. Mol Breeding 35, 182 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-015-0373-7

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