Plant Genome II Conference
Town & Country Conference Center, San Diego, CA, January, 1994.
PG-II: MOLECULAR MAPPING OF GRAIN QUALITY TRAITS IN WHEAT
MOLECULAR MAPPING OF GRAIN QUALITY TRAITS IN WHEAT.
James A. Anderson 1, Mark E. Sorrells 2, Patrick L. Finney 3, and
Steven D. Tanksley 2, 1 Crop and Weed Sciences Department, North
Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105, 2 Department of Plant
Breeding and Biometry, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 3 USDA-ARS
Soft Wheat Quality Laboratory, Wooster, OH.
The selection of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) lines with
high grain quality is difficult because of a lack of knowledge of
its genetic control and the effects of environment and genotype x
environment interaction. Breeding progress would be enhanced by
the use of selection criteria that can explain a large portion of
the genetic variation in grain quality and can be used
economically to screen early generation materials. DNA markers
linked to loci controlling these traits could be the basis of
such a diagnostic assay. Our objective was to investigate the
genetics of several grain quality traits in wheat and map them
using DNA markers. A population of 78 recombinant inbred (RI)
lines derived from the cross of the soft white wheat NY6432-18
and the hard white wheat 'Clark's Cream' was evaluated for
preharvest sprouting (PHS) in eleven environments and four other
grain quality traits in two environments. Fifty-nine RFLP
markers have been mapped in this population. Associations
between grain quality traits and RFLP markers were determined by
one-way analysis of variance and regression. The variation among
RI lines was highly significant for all grain quality traits.
Multiple regression models constructed from significant RFLP
markers explain the following percentage of the phenotypic
variance: PHS, 35%; Flour Protein Concentration, 40%; Alkaline
Water Retention Capacity, 28%; Adjusted Flour Yield, 14%; and
Kernel Hardness, 9%. Epistatic interactions between significant
markers were found for PHS and flour protein concentration. We
continue to map additional polymorphisms in this population to
identify other genetic factors conditioning grain quality.
Return to Previous Page or Intl-PAG Homepage