Identification of genetic loci for powdery mildew resistance in common wheat

Xia Liu; Xiaoqing Zhang; Xianghai Meng; Peng Liu; Menglin Lei; Hui Jin; Yanzhen Wang; Yirong Jin; Guoqing Cui; Zhixin Mu; Jindong Liu; Xiaoyun Jia

doi:10.3389/fpls.2024.1443239

Identification of genetic loci for powdery mildew resistance in common wheat

Front Plant Sci. 2024 Oct 9:15:1443239. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1443239. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Xia Liu^#^{1

2}, Xiaoqing Zhang^#³, Xianghai Meng⁴, Peng Liu⁵, Menglin Lei², Hui Jin⁶, Yanzhen Wang², Yirong Jin⁵, Guoqing Cui², Zhixin Mu², Jindong Liu⁷, Xiaoyun Jia¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Agriculture, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu, China.
² Center for Agricultural Genetic Resources Research, Shanxi Agricultural University/Key Laboratory of Gene Resources and Germplasm Enhancement, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Molecular Improvement of Shanxi Province, Taiyuan, China.
³ National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center of the Ministry, Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing, China.
⁴ Dryland Farming Institute, Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Hengshui, China.
⁵ Wheat Research Institute, Dezhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Dezhou, China.
⁶ Institute of Forage and Grassland Sciences, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, China.
⁷ Institute of Crop Sciences, National Wheat Improvement Centre, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Beijing, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Powdery mildew (PM) poses an extreme threat to wheat yields and quality. In this study, 262 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of Doumai and Shi 4185 cross were used to map PM resistance genes across four environments. High-density genetic linkage map of the Doumai/Shi 4185 RIL population was constructed using the wheat Illumina iSelect 90K single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. In total, four stable quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for PM resistance, QPm.caas-2AS, QPm.caas-4AS, QPm.caas-4BL, and QPm.caas-6BS, were detected and explained 5.6%-15.6% of the phenotypic variances. Doumai contributed all the resistance alleles of QPm.caas-2AS, QPm.caas-4AS, QPm.caas-4BL, and QPm.caas-6BS. Among these, QPm.caas-4AS and QPm.caas-6BS overlapped with the previously reported loci, whereas QPm.caas-2AS and QPm.caas-4BL are potentially novel. In addition, six high-confidence genes encoding the NBS-LRR-like resistance protein, disease resistance protein family, and calcium/calmodulin-dependent serine/threonine-kinase were selected as the candidate genes for PM resistance. Three kompetitive allele-specific PCR (KASP) markers, Kasp_PMR_2AS for QPm.caas-2AS, Kasp_PMR_4BL for QPm.caas-4BL, and Kasp_PMR_6BS for QPm.caas-6BS, were developed, and their genetic effects were validated in a natural population including 100 cultivars. These findings will offer valuable QTLs and available KASP markers to enhance wheat marker-assisted breeding for PM resistance.

Keywords: 90K SNP array; KASP; Triticum aestivum; powdery mildew; resistance.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by CAST (YESS) (2020QNRC001), Wheat Seed Industry Innovation and Joint Breeding Project (NYGG26), Central Government-Guided Local Science and Technology Development Funds (YDZJSX20231C011), and Shanxi Provincial Natural Science Foundation Youth Project (202203021212433), Scientific Research and Development Fund of Cotton Research Institute, Shanxi Agricultural University (SJJQN2023-06).