Characterizing concentrations of several beneficiary and toxic metals in maize leaves is of importance for ionomic studies and for silage production. The intermated B73 × Mo17 maize population (IBM) was evaluated for concentrations of eight metals (cadmium - Cd, copper - Cu, iron - Fe, potassium - K, magnesium - Mg, manganese - Mn, strontium - Sr and zinc - Zn) in ear-leaf to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) with 2161 molecular markers across the genome. QTL analysis revealed nine significant QTLs for concentrations of Cd, Cu, Fe, K, Mg and Sr combined over two environments. Median resolution for the QTL interval was less than 1 cM on a regular F2 map, which is a big improvement compared with the prior mapping (8 cM). The highest LOD scores of 15.52 and 15.31 were detected for K and Cd concentrations, respectively, explaining more than 20 percent of the phenotypic variance. No QTLs were found to be colocalized. QTL mapping in the IBM population did not confirm our earlier QTL results demonstrating considerable QTL ×genetic background interaction. The only exception is confirmation of the major QTL for Cd accumulation on chromosome 2. Our results could facilitate further genetic and physical mapping of genes for metal accumulation in maize.
Wheat cultivars differ in their response to nitrogen (N) fertilizer, both in terms of its uptake and utilization. Characterizing this variation is an important step in improving the N use efficiency (NUE) of future cultivars while maximizing production (yield) potential. In this study, we compared the agronomic performance of 48 diverse wheat cultivars released between 1936 and 2016 at low and high N input levels in field conditions to assess the relationship between NUE and its components. Agronomic trait values were significantly lower in the low N treatment, and the cultivars tested showed a significant variation for all traits (apart from the N remobilization efficiency), indicating that response is genotype-dependent, although significant genotype × environment effects were also observed. Overall, we show a varietal improvement in NUE over time of 0.33 and 0.30% year–1 at low and high N, respectively, and propose that this is driven predominantly by varietal selection for increased yield. More complete understanding of the components of these improvements will inform future targeted breeding and selection strategies to support a reduction in fertilizer use while maintaining productivity.
An increased awareness of environmental protection and sustainable production raise the necessity of incorporating the selection of low nitrogen-tolerant winter wheat cultivars for high yield and quality in the breeding process. This selection can be assisted by using stress screening indices. Our study aimed to evaluate and compare a number of stress screening indices and to determine and select the most nitrogen deficiency-tolerant winter wheat cultivars for further breeding. The experiment included forty-eight winter wheat cultivars from eight different countries that were grown for two consecutive years at three different locations under low-nitrogen (LN) and high-nitrogen (HN) conditions. The results emphasized the importance of applying the appropriate stress screening indices in evaluating and selecting nitrogen deficiency-tolerant wheat cultivars. The promising stress screening indices were the mean productivity index (MP), geometric mean productivity index (GMP), harmonic mean index (HM), stress tolerance index (STI) and yield index (YI). They identified cultivars Sofru, BC Opsesija and MV-Nemere as the most tolerant cultivars to LN conditions for grain yield. The same indices classified U-1, OS-Olimpija, Forcali, Viktoria and BC Tena cultivars as the most tolerant to LN conditions for the grain protein content. Using the tolerance index (TOL), yield stability index (YSI) and relative stress index (RSI), the Katarina and Ficko cultivars were denoted as LN-tolerant cultivars in terms of the grain yield and Isengrain, Tosunbey, Vulkan and BC Darija in terms of the grain protein content.
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