Genetic incorporation of genes for the optimal plant architecture in common wheat.

UNLABELLED

Wheat grain yield is affected by plant height, which is the total length of spike, the uppermost internode, and other elongated internodes. In this study, a population of recombinant inbred lines generated from a cross between two advanced winter wheat breeding lines were phenotyped over four locations/years and genotyped by using markers of genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) and Diversity Array Technology (DArT) for mapping of genes for three traits, including spike length, the uppermost internode length, and plant height. Five genomic regions or quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were associated with candidate genes for these traits. A major QTL was associated with , and two novel haplotypes of were identified, one for a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at position -2,149 in promoter region and the other for copy number variation. Compared with one copy on chromosome 5A in Chinese Spring, the novel haplotype of with two copies was found to generate spikes that are extremely compacted. A major QTL was associated with allelic variation in the recessive alleles involving in protein sequences, and this QTL was associated with increased uppermost internode length but not with plant height. A major QTL for plant height was associated with on chromosome 4B, but its effects could be compromised by two new minor QTLs on chromosome 7. Collectively, the favorable alleles from the four loci can be used to establish the optimal plant height in wheat.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11032-022-01336-2.