Aleliūnas Andrius, Gorash Andrii, Armonienė Rita, Tamm Ilmar, Ingver Anne, Bleidere Māra, Fetere Valentīna, Kollist Hannes, Mroz Tomasz, Lillemo Morten, Brazauskas Gintaras
Institute of Agriculture, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Akademija, Lithuania.
Centre of Estonian Rural Research and Knowledge, Jõgeva Alevik, Estonia.
Front Plant Sci. 2024 Jun 21;15:1393170. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1393170. eCollection 2024.
Spring wheat ( L.) remains an important alternative to winter wheat cultivation at Northern latitudes due to high risk of overwintering or delayed sowing of winter wheat. We studied nine major agronomic traits in a set of 299 spring wheat genotypes in trials across 12-year-site combinations in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Norway for three consecutive years. The dataset analyzed here consisted of previously published phenotypic data collected in 2021 and 2022, supplemented with additional phenotypic data from the 2023 field season collected in this study. We combined these phenotypic datasets with previously published genotypic data generated using a 25K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array that yielded 18,467 markers with a minor allele frequency above 0.05. Analysis of these datasets via genome-wide association study revealed 18 consistent quantitative trait loci (QTL) replicated in two or more trials that explained more than 5% of phenotypic variance for plant height, grain protein content, thousand kernel weight, or heading date. The most consistent markers across the tested environments were detected for plant height, thousand kernel weight, and days to heading in eight, five, and six trials, respectively. No beneficial effect of the semi-dwarfing alleles and on grain yield performance was observed across the 12 tested trials. Moreover, the cultivars carrying these alleles were low yielding in general. Based on principal component analysis, wheat genotypes developed in the Northern European region clustered separately from those developed at the southern latitudes, and markers associated with the clustering were identified. Important phenotypic traits, such as grain yield, days to heading, grain protein content, and thousand kernel weight were associated with this clustering of the genotype sets. Interestingly, despite being adapted to the Nordic environment, genotypes in the Northern set demonstrated lower grain yield performance across all tested environments. The results indicate that spring wheat germplasm harbors valuable QTL/alleles, and the identified trait-marker associations might be useful in improving Nordic-Baltic spring wheat germplasm under global warming conditions.
由于冬小麦越冬风险高或播种延迟，春小麦（L.）仍是北纬地区冬小麦种植的重要替代作物。我们连续三年在立陶宛、拉脱维亚、爱沙尼亚和挪威的12年地点组合试验中，研究了299个春小麦基因型的九个主要农艺性状。这里分析的数据集包括2021年和2022年收集的先前发表的表型数据，并补充了本研究中2023年田间季节收集的额外表型数据。我们将这些表型数据集与先前发表的使用25K单核苷酸多态性（SNP）阵列生成的基因型数据相结合，该阵列产生了18467个次要等位基因频率高于0.05的标记。通过全基因组关联研究对这些数据集进行分析，发现了18个一致的数量性状位点（QTL），这些位点在两个或更多试验中重复出现，解释了株高、籽粒蛋白质含量、千粒重或抽穗期表型变异的5%以上。在测试环境中，分别在8次、5次和6次试验中检测到了株高、千粒重和抽穗天数最一致的标记。在12次测试试验中，未观察到半矮秆等位基因和对籽粒产量表现的有益影响。此外，携带这些等位基因的品种总体产量较低。基于主成分分析，北欧地区培育的小麦基因型与南半球培育的基因型分开聚类，并鉴定了与聚类相关的标记。重要的表型性状，如籽粒产量、抽穗天数、籽粒蛋白质含量和千粒重与基因型集的这种聚类相关。有趣的是，尽管适应了北欧环境，但北方组的基因型在所有测试环境中的籽粒产量表现较低。结果表明，春小麦种质含有有价值的QTL/等位基因，所鉴定的性状-标记关联可能有助于在全球变暖条件下改良北欧-波罗的海春小麦种质。
