Flag leaf size and posture of bread wheat: genetic dissection, QTL validation and their relationships with yield-related traits

• Published in: Theoretical and applied genetics Vol. 133; no. 1; pp. 297 - 315
• Main Authors: Ma, Jian, Tu, Yang, Zhu, Jing, Luo, Wei, Liu, Hang, Li, Cong, Li, Shuiqin, Liu, Jiajun, Ding, Puyang, Habib, Ahsan, Mu, Yang, Tang, Huaping, Liu, Yaxi, Jiang, Qiantao, Chen, Guoyue, Wang, Jirui, Li, Wei, Pu, Zhien, Zheng, Youliang, Wei, Yuming, Kang, Houyang, Chen, Guangdeng, Lan, Xiujin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2020; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agriculture; Analysis; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Bread; Chromosome Mapping; Gene mapping; Genetic analysis; Inbreeding; Inheritance Patterns - genetics; Leaf angle; Leaves; Life Sciences; Organ Size - genetics; Original Article; Phenotype; Plant Biochemistry; Plant Breeding/Biotechnology; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plant Leaves - anatomy & histology; Population genetics; Posture; Quantitative genetics; Quantitative trait loci; Quantitative Trait Loci - genetics; Quantitative Trait, Heritable; Reproducibility of Results; Surgery; Triticum - anatomy & histology; Triticum - genetics; Wheat; Yang Mu; Bangladesh; China; Israel
• ISSN: 0040-5752; 1432-2242
• DOI: 10.1007/s00122-019-03458-2

Key message
Major and environmentally stable QTL for flag leaf-related traits in wheat were identified and validated across ten environments using six populations with different genetic backgrounds.
Flag leaf size and posture are two important factors of “ideotype” in wheat. Despite numerous studies on genetic analysis of flag leaf size including flag leaf length (FLL), width (FLW), area (FLA) and the ratio of length/width (FLR), few have focused on flag leaf posture including flag leaf angle (FLANG), opening angle (FLOA) and bend angle (FLBA). Further, the numbers of major, environmentally stable and verified genetic loci for flag leaf-related traits are limited. In this study, QTL for FLL, FLW, FLA, FLR, FLANG, FLOA and FLBA were identified based on a recombinant inbred line population together with values from up to ten different environments. Totally, eight major and stably expressed QTL were identified. Three co-located chromosomal intervals for seven major QTL were identified. The five major QTL
QFll.sicau
-
5B.3
and
QFll.sicau
-
2D.3
for FLL,
QFlr.sicau
-
5B
for FLR,
QFlw.sicau
-
2D
for FLW and
QFla.sicau
-
2D
for FLA were successfully validated by the tightly linked Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) markers in the other five populations with different genetic backgrounds. A few genes related to leaf growth and development in intervals for these major QTL were predicated. Significant relationships between flag leaf- and yield-related traits were evidenced by analyses of Pearson correlations, conditional QTL and genetic mapping. Taken together, these results provide valuable information for understanding flag leaf size and posture of “ideotype” as well as fine mapping and breeding utilization of promising loci in bread wheat.