QTLs for earliness and yield-forming traits in the Lubuski × CamB barley RIL population under various water regimes

Abstract

Drought has become more frequent in Central Europe causing large losses in cereal yields, especially of spring crops. The development of new varieties with increased tolerance to drought is a key tool for improvement of agricultural productivity. Material for the study consisted of 100 barley recombinant inbred lines (RILs) (LCam) derived from the cross between Syrian and European parents. The RILs and parental genotypes were examined in greenhouse experiments under well-watered and water-deficit conditions. During vegetation the date of heading, yield and yield-related traits were measured. RIL population was genotyped with microsatellite and single nucleotide polymorphism markers. This population, together with two other populations, was the basis for the consensus map construction, which was used for identification of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) affecting the traits. The studied lines showed a large variability in heading date. It was noted that drought-treatment negatively affected the yield and its components, especially when applied at the flag leaf stage. In total, 60 QTLs were detected on all the barley chromosomes. The largest number of QTLs was found on chromosome 2H. The main QTL associated with heading, located on chromosome 2H (Q.HD.LC-2H), was identified at SNP marker 5880–2547, in the vicinity of Ppd-H1 gene. SNP 5880–2547 was also the closest marker to QTLs associated with plant architecture, spike morphology and grain yield. The present study showed that the earliness allele from the Syrian parent, as introduced into the genome of an European variety could result in an improvement of barley yield performance under drought conditions.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13353-016-0363-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Barley varieties in semi‐controlled and natural conditions—Response to water shortage and changing environment

“…() and Ogrodowicz et al. () in the RIL populations, only five QTLs exhibiting the same additive effect as that in the mapping study were found in both Experiment I and Experiment II. This was not unexpected, as the fine positioning and estimated QTL effects are known to depend on the population.…”

“…() and Ogrodowicz et al. (), 74 were selected for the traits that could be associated with the traits observed in Experiment I or Experiment II (Supporting information Table ; 1,000‐grain weight—TGW; grain weight per square metre, grain weight per plant—GWP, GY; length of the main stem—LMS, PH; number of productive tillers per plant—NPT). Alleles increasing values of the traits (positive alleles) and the markers closest to the QTLs were defined.…”

“…Three of these QTLs, for TGW, were linked to the markers 2822–739, ABC09432‐1‐1‐160 and 4679–1594, and two for LMS‐PH to the markers 10207–1024, 1066–2110. All these markers were found to have stable effects in natural and controlled environments in the mapping populations (Mikolajczak et al., ; Mikołajczak et al., ; Ogrodowicz et al., ). Two varieties with positive alleles in both markers linked to LMS (Gawrosz and Jersey) were very high, whereas varieties having alleles decreasing height were numerous (which reflects the breeding selection process) and were located in the middle of the ranking.…”

“…Among the weather variables, RI-III and RVIII played the most important role in this explanation (for six varieties). (Mikolajczak et al, 2017;Mikołajczak et al, 2016;Ogrodowicz et al, 2017). Two varieties with positive alleles in both markers linked to LMS (Gawrosz and Jersey) were very high, whereas varieties having alleles decreasing height were numerous (which reflects the breeding selection process) and were located in the middle of the ranking.…”

“…The size of the drought effects, and thus, the stress tolerance, is genetically controlled (Anjum et al., ; Bandurska et al., ; Blum, ; Chmielewska et al., ; Daszkowska‐Golec & Szarejko, ; De Mezer et al., ; Filek et al., ; Forster et al., ; Jozefaciuk & Lukowska, ; Piasecka et al., ). Numerous genetic studies have been focused on the response of barley plants to water scarcity (Diab et al., ; Mansour et al., ; Mikolajczak et al., ; Mikołajczak et al., ; Ogrodowicz et al., ; Talamè et al., ; Teulat, Merah, Souyris, & This, ; Teulat et al., , ; Tondelli et al., ; Wójcik‐Jagła et al., ). Genetic maps well‐saturated with molecular markers, used in these studies, have enabled the localization of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) with stable effects on the yield and the related traits under optimal and drought conditions, and the distinguishing of markers useful in the selection of genotypes more tolerant to drought.…”