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Major and stably expressed QTL for traits related to the mature wheat embryo independent of kernel size

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Two major and stably expressed QTL for traits related to mature wheat embryo independent of kernel size were identified and validated in a natural population that contained 171 Sichuan wheat accessions and 49 Sichuan wheat landraces.

Abstract

As the juvenile of a highly differentiated plant, mature wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) embryos are highly significant to agricultural production. To understand the genetic basis of traits related to wheat embryo size, the embryo of mature kernels in a recombination inbred line that contained 126 lines from four environments was measured. The genetic loci of embryo size, including embryo length (EL), embryo width (EW), embryo area (EA), embryo length/kernel length (EL/KL), embryo width/kernel width (EW/KW), and EL/EW, were identified based on a genetic linkage map constructed based on PCR markers and the Wheat 55 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. A total of 50 quantitative trait loci (QTL) for traits related to wheat embryo size were detected. Among them, QEL.sicau-2SY-4A for EL and QEW.sicau-2SY-7B for EW were major and stably expressed and were genetically independent of KL and KW, respectively. Their effects were further verified in a natural population that contained 171 Sichuan wheat accessions and 49 Sichuan wheat landraces. Further analysis showed that TraesCS4A02G343300 and TraesCS7B02G006800 could be candidate genes for QEL.sicau-2SY-4A and QEW.sicau-2SY-7B, respectively. In addition, significant positive correlations between EL and kernel-related traits and the 1,000-grain weight were detected. Collectively, this study broadens our understanding of the genetic basis of wheat embryo size and will be helpful for the further fine-mapping of interesting loci in the future.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files; further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the anonymous referees for critical reading and revising this manuscript. We thank language editors from MogoEdit company to help read and revise this paper.

Funding

This work is supported by the Key Research and Development Program of Sichuan Province (2021YFYZ0002 and 2023YFSY0056), Sichuan Science and Technology Program (2022YFH0053 and 2021YFH0083), and the Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province (2023NSFSC0223), Sichuan Province Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars (2022JDJQ0006). 

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  1. Surong Wang, Tianyu Wang and Qijing Xuan have contributed equally to this paper.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Exploration and Utilization in Southwest China, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, China

    Surong Wang, Qijing Xuan, Xiangru Qu, Qiang Xu, Qiantao Jiang, Yunfeng Jiang, Guoyue Chen, Mei Deng, Yanling Liu, Huaping Tang, Yuming Wei, Youliang Zheng & Jian Ma

  2. Triticeae Research Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, China

    Surong Wang, Qijing Xuan, Xiangru Qu, Qiang Xu, Qiantao Jiang, Yunfeng Jiang, Guoyue Chen, Mei Deng, Yanling Liu, Huaping Tang, Yuming Wei, Youliang Zheng & Jian Ma

  3. College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, China

    Tianyu Wang, Zhien Pu, Yang Li & Lulu Gou

  4. College of Resources, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, China

    Guangdeng Chen

  5. Mianyang Academy of Agricultural Science/Crop Characteristic Resources Creation and Utilization Key Laboratory of Sichuan Providence, Mianyang, 621000, China

    Yuanjiang He

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  1. Surong Wang
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Contributions

SRW and TYW finished the study and drafted this manuscript. QJX and XRQ participated in phenotype measurement and analyzed data. QX and QTJ helped phenotype measurement and data analysis. ZEP and YL did field work and data analysis. YFJ and GYC collected and analyzed data. MD, YLL, HPT, GDC, YJH and LLG helped with data analysis. YMW revised the manuscript. YLZ discussed results and revised the manuscript. JM designed the experiments, guided the entire study, participated in data analysis and extensively revised this manuscript. All authors participated in the research and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jian Ma.

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All experiments and data analyses were conducted in Sichuan. All authors contributed to the study and approved the final version for submission. The manuscript has not been submitted to any other journal.

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Communicated by Takao Komatsuda.

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Wang, S., Wang, T., Xuan, Q. et al. Major and stably expressed QTL for traits related to the mature wheat embryo independent of kernel size. Theor Appl Genet 136, 90 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-023-04346-6

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