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Wild-type alleles of Rht-B1 and Rht-D1 as independent determinants of thousand-grain weight and kernel number per spike in wheat

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Abstract

The utilization of dwarfing genes Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b in wheat significantly increased grain yield and contributed to the “green revolution”. However, the benefit of Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b in drought environments has been debated. Although quantitative trait loci (QTL) for kernel number per spike (KN) and thousand-grain weight (TGW) have been found to be associated with Rht-B1 and Rht-D1, the confounding effect of environmental variation has made a direct association difficult to find. In this study, we used a doubled haploid population (225 lines) of Westonia × Kauz, in which both Rht-B1b (Kauz) and Rht-D1b (Westonia) segregated. The purpose of the study was to determine the interaction of Rht-B1 and Rht-D1 with grain yield components, namely KN and TGW, and to investigate genotype-by-environment interactions in glasshouse and field trials conducted in 2010 and 2011 in Western Australia. A genetic map of 1,156 loci was constructed using 195 microsatellite markers, two gene-based markers for Rht-B1 and Rht-D1, and 959 single nucleotide polymorphisms. The major QTL for TGW and KN were strongly linked to Rht-B1 and Rht-D1 loci and the positive effects were associated with the wild-type alleles, Rht-B1a and Rht-D1a. The major QTL of TGW were on chromosome 2D and 4B. The significant genetic effects (14.6–22.9 %) of TGW indicated that marker-assisted selection for TGW is possible, and markers gwm192a (206 bp) or gwm192b (236 bp) can be used as indicators of high TGW. For KN, one major QTL was detected on chromosome 4D in the analysis across three environments. The association of the wild-type alleles Rht-B1a and Rht-D1a in drought environments is discussed.

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Abbreviations

DH:

Doubled haploid

GA:

Gibberellic acid

GAI:

Gibberellic acid insensitive

GW:

Grain weight per spike

KN:

Kernel number per spike

QTL:

Quantitative trait loci

SNP:

Single nucleotide polymorphism

SSR:

Microsatellite molecular markers

TGW:

Thousand-grain weight

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Murdoch University and Grain Research & Development Corporation ‘grant number UMU00039’. The authors acknowledge Ruilian Jing, Wei Shi, Xianshan Hu (Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, China) and Jun Zhu (Zhe Jiang University) for their help in QTL analysis and checking the mapping data. The authors are very grateful to Irene Waters and Tim Setter (Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia) for providing the Westonia and Kauz double haploid lines and to Mehmet Cakir for providing 199 polymorphic SSR marker names.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, WA, 6150, Australia

    Jingjuan Zhang & Nusrat Khan

  2. Division of Research and Development, Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, WA, 6150, Australia

    Bernard Dell

  3. Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia, 3 Baron Hay Court, South Perth, WA, 6151, Australia

    Ben Biddulph, Fiona Drake-Brockman & Esther Walker

  4. Department of Plant Industry, Victorian AgriBiosciences Center, 1 Park Drive, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia

    Debbie Wong & Matthew Hayden

  5. Centre for Comparative Genomics, Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, WA, 6150, Australia

    Rudi Appels

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  1. Jingjuan Zhang
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  2. Bernard Dell
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  9. Rudi Appels
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Correspondence to Jingjuan Zhang.

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Zhang, J., Dell, B., Biddulph, B. et al. Wild-type alleles of Rht-B1 and Rht-D1 as independent determinants of thousand-grain weight and kernel number per spike in wheat. Mol Breeding 32, 771–783 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-013-9905-1

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