Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Molecular mapping of genes for Coleoptile growth in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Theoretical and Applied Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Successful plant establishment is critical to the development of high-yielding crops. Short coleoptiles can reduce seedling emergence particularly when seed is sown deep as occurs when moisture necessary for germination is deep in the subsoil. Detailed molecular maps for a range of wheat doubled-haploid populations (Cranbrook/Halberd, Sunco/Tasman, CD87/Katepwa and Kukri/Janz) were used to identify genomic regions affecting coleoptile characteristics length, cross-sectional area and degree of spiralling across contrasting soil temperatures. Genotypic variation was large and distributions of genotype means were approximately normal with evidence for transgressive segregation. Narrow-sense heritabilities were high for coleoptile length and cross-sectional area indicating a strong genetic basis for differences among progeny. In contrast, heritabilities for coleoptile spiralling were small. Molecular marker analyses identified a number of significant quantitative trait loci (QTL) for coleoptile growth. Many of the coleoptile growth QTL mapped directly to the Rht-B1 or Rht-D1 dwarfing gene loci conferring reduced cell size through insensitivity to endogenous gibberellins. Other QTL for coleoptile growth were identified throughout the genome. Epistatic interactions were small or non-existent, and there was little evidence for any QTL × temperature interaction. Gene effects at significant QTL were approximately one-half to one-quarter the size of effects at the Rht-B1 and Rht-D1 regions. However, selection at these QTL could together alter coleoptile length by up to 50 mm. In addition to Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b, genomic regions on chromosomes 2B, 2D, 4A, 5D and 6B were repeatable across two or more populations suggesting their potential value for use in breeding and marker-aided selection for greater coleoptile length and improved establishment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allan RE (1989) Agronomic comparisons between Rht1 and Rht2 semidwarf genes in winter wheat. Crop Sci 29:1103–1108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allan RE, Vogel OA (1964) F2 monosomic analysis of coleoptile and first-leaf development in two series of wheat crosses. Crop Sci 4:338–339

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andrews M, Douglas A, Jones AV, Milburn CE, Porter D, McKenzie BA (1997) Emergence of temperate pasture grasses from different sowing depths: importance of seed weight, coleoptile plus mesocotyl length and shoot strength. Ann Appl Biol 130:549–560

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Botwright TL, Rebetzke GJ, Condon AG, Richards RA (2001) The effect of rht genotype and temperature on coleoptile growth and dry matter partitioning in young wheat seedlings. Aust J Plant Phys 15:417–423

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown PR, Singleton GR, Tann CR, Mock I (2003) Increasing sowing depth to reduce mouse damage to winter crops. Crop Prot 22:653–660

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chalmers KJ, Campbell AW, Kretschmer J, Karakousis A, Henschke PH, Pierens S, Harker N, Pallotta M, Cornish GB, Shariflou MR, Rampling LR, McLauchlan A, Daggard G, Sharp PJ, Holton TA, Sutherland MW, Appels R, Langridge P (2001) Construction of three linkage maps in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Aust J Agric Res 52:1089–1120

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen L, Higashitani A, Suge H, Takeda K, Takahashi H (2003) Spiral growth and cell wall properties of the gibberellin-treated first internodes in the seedlings of a wheat cultivar tolerant to deep-sowing conditions. Physiol Plantarum 118:147–155

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Churchill GA, Doerge RW (1994) Empirical threshold values for quantitative trait mapping. Genetics 138:963–971

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cockerham CC (1983) Covariances of relatives from self-fertilization. Crop Sci 23:1177–1180

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis MH, Rebetzke GJ, Chandler P, Bonnett DG, Spielmeyer W, Richards RA (2004) The effect of different height reducing genes on the early growth of wheat. Func Plant Biol 31:583–589

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fick GN, Qualset CO (1976) Seedling emergence, coleoptile length, and plant height relationships in crosses of dwarf and standard-height wheats. Euphytica 25:679–684

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hadjichristodoulou A, Della A, Photiades J (1977) Effect of sowing depth on plant establishment, tillering capacity and other agronomic characters of cereals. J Agric Sci 89:161–167

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoogendoorn J, Rickson JM, Gale MD (1990) Differences in leaf and stem anatomy related to plant height of tall and dwarf wheat. J Plant Physiol 136:72–77

    Google Scholar 

  • Kammholz SJ, Campbell AW, Sutherland MW, Hollamby G, Martin P, Eastwood R, Barclay I, Wilson R, Brennan P, Sheppard J (2001) Establishment and characterisation of wheat genetic mapping populations. Aust J Agric Res 52:1079–1088

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lehmensiek A, Eckermann PJ, Verbyla AP, Appels R, Sutherland MW, Daggard GE (2005) Curation of wheat maps to improve map accuracy and QTL detection. Aust J Agric Res 56:1347–1354

    Google Scholar 

  • Littell RC, Milliken GA, Stroup WW, Wolfinger RD (1996) SAS System for Mixed models. SAS Institute Inc., Cary

  • Mahdi L, Bell CJ, Ryan J (1998) Establishment and yield of wheat (Triticum turgidum L.) after early sowing at various depths in a semi-arid Mediterranean environment. Field Crop Res 58:187–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marais GF, Botma PS (1987) Initial seedling growth rates in a semi-dwarf spring wheat collection. S Afr J Plant Soil 4:47–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Mason SC, Lasschuit J, Lasa JM (1994) Interrelationship of sorghum coleoptile morphology with emergence potential in crusted soil. Eur J Agron 3:17–21

    Google Scholar 

  • Matsui T, Inanaga S, Sugimoto Y, Nakata N (1998) Chromosomal location of genes controlling final coleoptile length in wheat using chromosome substitution lines. Wheat Inform Serv 87:22–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Matsui T, Inanaga S, Shimotashiro T, An P, Sugimoto Y (2002) Morphological characters related to varietal differences in tolerance to deep sowing in wheat. Plant Prod Sci 5:169–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Donovan JT, Blackshaw RE, Neil Harker K, Clayton GW, McKenzie R (2005) Variable crop plant establishment contributes to differences in competitiveness with wild oat among cereal varieties. Can J Plant Sci 85:771–776

    Google Scholar 

  • Rebetzke GJ, Richards RA, Fischer VM, Mickelson BJ (1999) Breeding long coleoptile, reduced height wheats. Euphytica 106:159–168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rebetzke GJ, Appels R, Morrison A, Richards RA, McDonald G, Ellis MH, Spielmeyer W, Bonnett DG (2001) Quantitative trait loci on chromosome 4B for coleoptile length and early vigour in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Aust J Agric Res 52:1221–1234

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rebetzke GJ, Richards RA, Sirault XRR, Morrison AD (2004) Genetic analysis of coleoptile length and diameter of wheat. Aust J Agric Res 55:733–743

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rebetzke GJ, Bruce S, Kirkegaard JA (2005) Genotypic increases in coleoptile length improves emergence and early vigour with crop residues. Plant Soil 270:87–100

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rebetzke GJ, Richards RA, Fettell NA, Long M, Condon AG, Botwright TL (2007) Genotypic increases in coleoptile length improves wheat establishment, early vigour and grain yield with deep sowing. Field Crop Res 100:10–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Redona ED, Mackill DJ (1996) Genetic variation for seedling vigor traits in rice. Crop Sci 36:285–290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richards RA (1992) The effect of dwarfing genes in spring wheat in dry environments. II. Growth, water use and water-use efficiency. Aust J Agric Res 43:529–539

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schillinger WF, Donaldson E, Allan RE, Jones SS (1998) Winter wheat seedling emergence from deep sowing depths. Agron J 90:582–586

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singhal NC, Jain KBL, Singh MP (1985) Genetic analysis of coleoptile length and plant height in bread wheat. Cereal Res Commun 13:231–237

    Google Scholar 

  • St Burgos M, Messmer MM, Stamp P, Schmid JE (2001) Flooding tolerance of spelt (Triticum spelta L.) compared to wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)—a physiological and genetic approach. Euphytica 122:287–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Takahashi H, Sato K, Takeda K (2001) Mapping genes for deep-seeding tolerance in barley. Euphytica 122:37–43

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Takeda K, Takahashi H (1999) Varietal variation for deep-seeding tolerance in barley and wheat. Breed Res 1:1–8

    Google Scholar 

  • ter Steege MW, den Ouden FM, Lambers H, Stam P, Peeters AJM (2005) Genetic and physiological architecture of early vigor in Aegilops tauchii, the D-Genome donor of hexaploid wheat. A quantitative trait loci analysis. Plant Physiol 139:1078–1094

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Voorips RE (2002) MapChart: software for the graphical presentation of linkage maps and QTLs. J Hered 93:77–78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whan BR (1976) The emergence of semidwarf and standard wheats, and its association with coleoptile length. Aust J Exp Agric 16:411–416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang J, Hu CC, Ye XZ, Zhu J (2005) QTLNetwork 2.0. Institute of Bioinformatics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou China (http://www.ibi.zju.edu.cn/software/qtlnetwork)

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Anke Lehmensiek (University of Southern Queensland), Lynette Rampling and Gulay Mann (CSIRO) for providing genetic maps.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIRO Plant Industry, GPO Box 1600, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    G. J. Rebetzke, M. H. Ellis, D. G. Bonnett & R. A. Richards

Authors
  1. G. J. Rebetzke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. H. Ellis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. D. G. Bonnett
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. R. A. Richards
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to G. J. Rebetzke.

Additional information

Communicated by C. Hackett.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rebetzke, G.J., Ellis, M.H., Bonnett, D.G. et al. Molecular mapping of genes for Coleoptile growth in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Theor Appl Genet 114, 1173–1183 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-007-0509-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-007-0509-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation