Use of dry matter content as a rapid and low-cost estimate for ranking genotypic differences in water-soluble carbohydrate concentrations in the stem and leaf sheath of Triticum aestivum
Gang-Ping Xue A B , C. Lynne McIntyre A , Allan R. Rattey A , Anthony F. van Herwaarden A and Ray Shorter AA CSIRO Plant Industry, 306 Carmody Rd, St Lucia, Brisbane, Qld 4067, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: Gang-Ping.Xue@csiro.au
Crop and Pasture Science 60(1) 51-59 https://doi.org/10.1071/CP08073
Submitted: 27 February 2008 Accepted: 22 October 2008 Published: 5 January 2009
Abstract
Stem water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) are an important source of temporary carbohydrate reserve in cool-season cereals. Genotypic variation in stem WSC concentration in wheat at anthesis is often positively associated with grain weight and yield in water-limited environments. In this study we have examined the relationship between dry matter content (DMC, dry weight per unit of fresh weight) and WSC concentration in field-grown bread wheat. Strong correlations (r = 0.92–0.95) were observed between DMC and WSC concentration in the stem and leaf sheath from the top two or three internodes of recombinant inbred lines from a cross between Seri M82 and Babax, at anthesis or 1 week after anthesis, in several field experiments. This strong correlation was also observed in diverse genotypes grown under rainfed or irrigated conditions. DMC and WSC concentration were also positively correlated in the whole above-ground biomass of wheat at anthesis (r = 0.74–0.91). Measurement of stem and leaf sheath DMC and WSC concentration in a small number of samples would allow the rapid prediction of WSC concentrations in a large number of field samples with reasonable accuracy, as demonstrated in a small dataset in this study. These data indicate that DMC can serve cereal breeding as a rapid and low-cost selection tool for genotypic ranking of WSC concentrations in breeding populations.
Additional keywords: water-soluble carbohydrates, genotypic ranking, stem/leaf sheath, grain weight.
Acknowledgments
We thank Janneke Drenth for her assistance in collection of field samples. We are grateful to Drs Graham Bonnett, Richard Simpson, Greg Rebetzke, and Tony Fischer for their valuable suggestions in the preparation of this manuscript. The work was partly supported by the Australian Grains Research & Development Corporation.
Aggarwal PK, Sinha SK
(1984) Effect of water stress on grain growth and assimilate partitioning in two cultivars of wheat contrasting in their yield stability in a drought-environment. Annals of Botany 53, 329–340.
Asseng S, van Herwaarden AF
(2003) Analysis of the benefits to wheat yield from assimilates stored prior to grain filling in a range of environments. Plant and Soil 256, 217–229.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
Blacklow WM,
Darbyshire B, Pheloung P
(1984) Fructans polymerized and depolymerized in internodes of winter wheat as grain-filling progressed. Plant Science Letters 36, 213–218.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
Blum A
(1998) Improving wheat grain filling under stress by stem reserve mobilization. Euphytica 100, 77–83.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Bonnett GD, Incoll LD
(1992) The potential pre-anthesis and post-anthesis contributions of stem internodes to grain yield in crops of winter barley. Annals of Botany 69, 219–225.
Brooks A,
Jenner CF, Aspinall D
(1982) Effect of water deficit on endosperm starch granules and grain physiology of wheat and barley. Australian Journal of Plant Physiology 9, 423–436.
Ehdaie B,
Alloush GA,
Madore MA, Waines JG
(2006) Genotypic variation for stem reserves and mobilization in wheat: II. postanthesis changes in internode water-soluble carbohydrates. Crop Science 46, 2093–2103.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
Ehdaie B,
Alloush GA, Waines JG
(2008) Genotypic variation in linear rate of grain growth and contribution of stem reserves to grain yield in wheat. Field Crops Research 106, 34–43.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Foulkes MJ,
Scott RK, Sylvester-Bradley R
(2002) The ability of wheat cultivars to withstand drought in UK conditions: formation of grain yield. Journal of Agricultural Science 138, 153–169.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Foulkes MJ,
Snape JW,
Shearman VJ,
Reynolds MP,
Gaju O, Sylvester-Bradley R
(2007) Genetic progress in yield potential in wheat: recent advances and future prospects. Journal of Agricultural Science 145, 17–29.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
Gebbing T
(2003) The enclosed and exposed part of the peduncle of wheat (Triticum aestivum)—spatial separation of fructan storage. New Phytologist 159, 245–252.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
Gebbing T,
Schnyder H, Kühbauch W
(1998) Carbon mobilization in shoot parts and roots of wheat during grain filling: assessment by 13C/12C steady-state labelling, growth analysis and balance sheets of reserves. Plant, Cell & Environment 21, 301–313.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
Hall MB,
Hoover WH,
Jennings JP, Webster TKM
(1999) A method for partitioning neutral detergent-soluble carbohydrates. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 79, 2079–2086.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
McCaig TN, Clarke JM
(1982) Seasonal changes in nonstructural carbohydrate levels of wheat and oats grown in a semiarid environment. Crop Science 22, 963–970.
|
CAS |
Olivares-Villegas JJ,
Reynolds MP, McDonald GK
(2007) Drought-adaptive attributes in the Seri/Babax hexaploid wheat population. Functional Plant Biology 34, 189–203.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Rebetzke GJ,
van Herwaarden AF,
Jenkins C,
Weiss M,
Lewis D,
Ruuska S,
Tabe L,
Fettell NA, Richards RA
(2008) Quantitative trait loci for water-soluble carbohydrates and associations with agronomic traits in wheat. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 59, 891–905.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
Ruuska SA,
Lewis DC,
Kennedy G,
Furbank RT,
Jenkins CLD, Tabe LM
(2008) Large scale transcriptome analysis of the effects of nitrogen nutrition on accumulation of stem carbohydrate reserves in reproductive stage wheat. Plant Molecular Biology 66, 15–32.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
PubMed |
Ruuska SA,
Rebetzke GJ,
van Herwaarden AF,
Richards RA,
Fettell NA,
Tabe LM, Jenkins CLD
(2006) Genotypic variation in water-soluble carbohydrate accumulation in wheat. Functional Plant Biology 33, 799–809.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
Schnyder H
(1993) The role of carbohydrate storage and redistribution in the source–sink relations of wheat and barley during grain filling. New Phytologist 123, 233–245.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Shearman VJ,
Sylvester-Bradley R,
Scott RK, Foulkes MJ
(2005) Physiological processes associated with wheat yield progress in UK. Crop Science 45, 175–185.
Smith KF,
Simpson RJ,
Oram RN,
Lowe KF,
Kelly KB,
Evans PM, Humphreys MO
(1998) Seasonal variation in the herbage yield and nutritive value of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) cultivars with high or normal herbage water-soluble carbohydrate concentrations grown in three contrasting Australian dairy environments. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 38, 821–830.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
van Herwaarden AF,
Angus JF,
Richards RA, Farquhar GD
(1998) ‘Haying-off’, the negative grain yield response of dryland wheat to nitrogen fertilizer. II. Carbohydrate and protein dynamics. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 49, 1083–1093.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Wardlaw IF, Willenbrink J
(1994) Carbohydrate storage and mobilisation by the culm of wheat between heading and grain maturity: the relation to sucrose synthase and sucrose-phosphate synthase. Australian Journal of Plant Physiology 21, 255–271.
|
CAS |
Wardlaw IF, Willenbrink J
(2000) Mobilization of fructan reserves and changes in enzyme activities in wheat stems correlate with water stress during kernel filling. New Phytologist 148, 413–422.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
Willenbrink J,
Bonnett GD,
Willenbrink S, Wardlaw IF
(1998) Changes of enzyme activities associated with the mobilization of carbohydrate reserves (fructans) from the stem of wheat during kernel filling. New Phytologist 139, 471–478.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
Xue GP,
McIntyre CL,
Jenkins CLD,
Glassop D,
van Herwaarden AF, Shorter R
(2008) Molecular dissection of variation in carbohydrate metabolism related to water-soluble carbohydrate accumulation in stems of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Plant Physiology 146, 441–454.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
PubMed |
Yemm EW, Willis AJ
(1954) The estimation of carbohydrates in plant extracts by anthrone. Biochemical Journal 57, 508–514.
|
CAS |
PubMed |
