Identification of a major QTL for yellow leaf spot resistance in the wheat varieties Brookton and Cranbrook

Abstract

Yellow leaf spot (YLS) or tan spot, caused by Pyrenophora tritici-repentis, is a major foliar disease of wheat. A bioassay was used to identify YLS seedling resistance phenotypes of Krichauff/Brookton and Cranbrook/Halberd doubled-haploid (DH) populations. Bulked-segregant analysis was used to identify amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers linked to a YLS resistance locus in the wheat cultivar Brookton. Three AFLPs were linked to YLS resistance and also to each other. One of these AFLPs was mapped to the interval Xbcd351–Xcdo400, which has been assigned to chromosome 5BL. Microsatellite markers in this region were selected from several maps and were genotyped on the Krichauff/Brookton population. Together with the bulked segregant analysis (BSA)-derived AFLPs, the microsatellite markers explained up to 39% of the total phenotypic variation (logarithm of odds ratio, LOD ≥  7.32), confirming the chromosome 5BL assignment of a Brookton YLS resistance locus, at or near the previously identified Pyrenophora tritici-repentis toxin-insensitivity locus tsn1. The marker–trait linkage was validated in the Cranbrook/Halberd DH population, in which the same microsatellite markers explained up to 60% of the total trait variance for YLS. The markers identified can be used for the selection of the Brookton and Cranbrook YLS seedling resistance locus on chromosome 5B.