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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Genetic factors associated with favourable pollinator traits in the wheat cultivar Piko

Takashi Okada A C D , J. E. A. Ridma M. Jayasinghe A , Paul Eckermann A , Nathan S. Watson-Haigh A , Patricia Warner A , Mark E. Williams B , Marc C. Albertsen B , Ute Baumann A and Ryan Whitford A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, University of Adelaide, Plant Genomics Centre, Hartley Grove, Urrbrae, SA 5064, Australia.

B Corteva Agriscience, 7250 NW 62nd Avenue, Johnston, IA 50131-1004, USA.

C Present address: The Robinson Research Institute, Adelaide Medical School, University of Adelaide, Adelaide Health and Medical Science Building, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia.

D Corresponding author. Email: takashi.okada@adelaide.edu.au

Functional Plant Biology - https://doi.org/10.1071/FP20181
Submitted: 23 June 2020  Accepted: 18 November 2020   Published online: 18 December 2020

Abstract

Hybrid breeding in wheat has the potential to boost yields. An efficient hybrid seed production system requires elite pollinators; however, such germplasm is limited among modern cultivars. Piko, a winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivar, has been identified as a superior pollinator and has been used in Europe. Piko has favourable pollinator traits for anther extrusion, anther length, pollen mass and hybrid seed set. However, the genetic factors responsible for Piko’s favourable traits are largely unknown. Here, we report on the genetic analysis of a Piko-derived F2 mapping population. We confirmed that Piko’s Rht-D1a allele for tall stature is associated with large anthers and high anther extrusion. However, Rht-D1 was not found to be associated with anther filament length, confirmed by near isogenic lines. Piko’s photoperiod sensitive Ppd-B1b allele shows an association with increased spike length, more spikelets and spike architecture traits, while the insensitive Ppd-B1a allele is linked with high anther extrusion and larger anthers. We identified an anther extrusion quantitative trait locus (QTL) on chromosome 6A that showed significantly biased transmission of the favourable Piko allele amongst F2 progenies. The Piko allele is completely absent in the distal 6AS region and the central 6A region revealed a significantly lower ratio (<8%) of F2 with homozygous Piko alleles. Our study provided further evidence for the effects of Rht-D1 and Ppd-B1 loci on multiple pollinator traits and a novel anther extrusion QTL that exhibits segregation distortion.

Keywords: anther, flowering, pollinator, Ppd-1, Rht-1, wheat.


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