Wheat is an important source of minerals for human nutrition and increasing grain mineral content can contribute to reducing mineral deficiencies. Here, we identify QTLs for mineral micronutrients in grain of wheat by determining the contents of six minerals in a total of eleven sample sets of three biparental populations from crosses between A.E.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHarnessing genetic diversity in major staple crops through the development of new breeding capabilities is essential to ensure food security. Here we examined the genetic and phenotypic diversity of the A. E.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMost of our crops are grown in monoculture with single genotypes grown over wide acreage. An alternative approach, where segregating populations are used as crops, is an exciting possibility, but outcomes of natural selection upon this type of crop are not well understood. We tracked allelic frequency changes in evolving composite cross populations of wheat grown over 10 generations under organic and conventional farming.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPerception of photoperiod changes enables plants to flower under optimum conditions for survival. We used doubled haploid populations of crosses among Avalon × Cadenza, Charger × Badger and Spark × Rialto and identified short-day flowering time response quantitative trait loci (QTL) on wheat chromosomes 1BS and 1BL. We used synteny between Brachypodium distachyon and wheat to identify potential candidates for both QTL.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCrop yields must increase to address food insecurity. Grain weight, determined by grain length and width, is an important yield component, but our understanding of the underlying genes and mechanisms is limited. We used genetic mapping and near isogenic lines (NILs) to identify, validate and fine-map a major quantitative trait locus (QTL) on wheat chromosome 5A associated with grain weight.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding the genomic complexity of bread wheat ( L.) is a cornerstone in the quest to unravel the processes of domestication and the following adaptation of domesticated wheat to a wide variety of environments across the globe. Additionally, it is of importance for future improvement of the crop, particularly in the light of climate change.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Previous quantitative trait loci (QTLs) studies using the Avalon × Cadenza doubled haploid (DH) population identified eleven QTLs determining plant height, heading date and grain yield. The objectives of this study were: (i) to provide insight into the effects of these QTLs using reciprocal multiple near isogenic lines (NILs) with each pair of alleles compared in both parental backgrounds (Avalon or Cadenza), (ii) quantifying epistasis by looking at the background effects and (iii) predict favourable allelic combinations to develop superior genotypes adapted to a target environment.
Results: To this aim, a library of 553 BC2 NILs and their recurrent parents were tested over two growing seasons (2012/2013 and 2013/2014).
Vernalization, photoperiod and the relatively poorly defined earliness () genes regulate flowering in plants. We report here the validation of a major quantitative trait locus (QTL) located on wheat 1DL using near isogenic lines (NILs). We used four independent pairs of NILs derived from a cross between Spark and Rialto winter wheat varieties, grown in both the field and controlled environments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Grain yield in wheat is a polygenic trait that is influenced by environmental and genetic interactions at all stages of the plant's growth. Yield is usually broken down into three components; number of spikes per area, grain number per spike, and grain weight (TGW). In polyploid wheat, studies have identified quantitative trait loci (QTL) which affect TGW, yet few have been validated and fine-mapped using independent germplasm, thereby having limited impact in breeding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA high level of genetic diversity was found in the A. E. Watkins bread wheat landrace collection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiploid Aegilops umbellulata and Ae. comosa and their natural allotetraploid hybrids Ae. biuncialis and Ae.
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 PDFStarch within the endosperm of most species of the Triticeae has a unique bimodal granule morphology comprising large lenticular A-type granules and smaller near-spherical B-type granules. However, a few wild wheat species (Aegilops) are known to lack B-granules. Ae.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFusarium head blight (FHB) is an important disease of wheat worldwide. The cultivar Spark is more resistant than most other UK winter wheat varieties but the genetic basis for this is not known. A mapping population from a cross between Spark and the FHB susceptible variety Rialto was used to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with resistance.
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