Flowering time synchronizes reproductive development with favorable environmental conditions to optimize yield. Improved understanding of the genetic control of flowering will help optimize varietal adaptation to future agricultural systems under climate change. Here, we investigate the genetic basis of flowering time in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCircadian clocks regulate many aspects of plant physiology and development that contribute to essential agronomic traits. Circadian clocks contain transcriptional feedback loops that are thought to generate circadian timing. There is considerable similarity in the genes that comprise the transcriptional and translational feedback loops of the circadian clock in the plant Kingdom.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMAGIC populations represent one of a new generation of crop genetic mapping resources combining high genetic recombination and diversity. We describe the creation and validation of an eight-parent MAGIC population consisting of 1091 F7 lines of winter-sown wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReduced height (Rht)-1 and Photoperiod (Ppd) have major effects on the adaptability of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) to specific environments. Ppd-D1a is a photoperiod insensitive allele that reduces time to flowering. The gibberellin (GA) insensitive alleles Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b shorten plant stature and were important components of the 'green revolution'.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe introduction of Reduced height (Rht)-B1b and Rht-D1b into bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) varieties was a key component of the 'green revolution' and today these alleles are the primary sources of semi-dwarfism in wheat. The Rht-1 loci encode DELLA proteins, which are transcription factors that affect plant growth and stress tolerance. In bread wheat, Rht-D1b and Rht-B1b influence resistance to the disease Fusarium Head Blight.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe introgression of Reduced height (Rht)-B1b and Rht-D1b into bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) varieties beginning in the 1960s led to improved lodging resistance and yield, providing a major contribution to the 'green revolution'. Although wheat Rht-1 and surrounding sequence is available, the genetic composition of this region has not been examined in a homoeologous series. To determine this, three Rht-1-containing bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) sequences derived from the A, B, and D genomes of the bread wheat variety Chinese Spring (CS) were fully assembled and analyzed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe genomes of cereals such as wheat (Triticum aestivum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) are large and therefore problematic for the map-based cloning of agronomicaly important traits. However, comparative approaches within the Poaceae permit transfer of molecular knowledge between species, despite their divergence from a common ancestor sixty million years ago. The finding that null variants of the rice gene cytokinin oxidase/dehydrogenase 2 (OsCKX2) result in large yield increases provides an opportunity to explore whether similar gains could be achieved in other Poaceae members.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: The results of wide- or interploidy crosses in angiosperms are unpredictable and often lead to seed abortion. The consequences of reciprocal interploidy crosses have been explored in maize in detail, focusing on alterations to tissue domains in the maize endosperm, and changes in endosperm-specific gene expression.
Methods: Following reciprocal interploidy crosses between diploid and tetraploid maize lines, development of endosperm domains was studied using GUS reporter lines, and gene expression in resulting kernels was investigated using semi-quantitative RT-PCR on endosperms isolated at different stages of development.