Abstract
Wheat grain yield consists of three components: spikes per plant, grains per spike (i.e. head or ear), and grain weight; and the grains per spike can be dissected into two subcomponents: spikelets per spike and grains per spikelet. An increase in any of these components will directly contribute to grain yield. Wheat morphology biology tells that a wheat plant has no lateral meristem that forms any branching shoot or spike. In this study, we report two novel shoot and spike traits that were produced from lateral meristems in bread wheat. One is supernumerary shoot that was developed from an axillary bud at the axil of leaves on the elongated internodes of the main stem. The other is supernumerary spike that was generated from a spikelet meristem on a spike. In addition, supernumerary spikelets were generated on the same rachis node of the spike in the plant that had supernumerary shoot and spikes. All of these supernumerary shoots/spikes/spikelets found in the super wheat plants produced normal fertility and seeds, displaying huge yield potential in bread wheat.
Highlights
Bread wheat, Triticum aestivum (2n = 6X = 42, AABBDD), displays various morphological traits that are produced due to the number and constitution of chromosomes during the evolution and natural selection, providing an exceptionally rich genetic resource for wheat improvement [1,2,3]
We report that hexaploid bread wheat plants were able to produce supernumerary shoot developed from an axillary bud at the axil of leaves on the elongated internodes of the main stem and supernumerary spike that was generated from a spikelet meristem on a spike
The tillers developed in a relatively simple pattern, a primary tiller from an axillary bud of the main stem, and a secondary tiller from an axillary bud of the primary tiller, and so on, but all of the tillers in the plant were developed from axillary buds of the leaves from the nodes of unelongated basal internodes that were compacted or joined and resided under the ground
Summary
Regardless of chromosome numbers, wheat grain yield of a typical wheat cultivar consists of three components: spikes per plant, grains per spike (i.e. head or ear), and grain weight. One spike is produced on the top of the main stem and each of the tillers that are fertile in a normal wheat cultivar, and those tillers that do not produce spike are referred to sterile tillers [5, 6]. The main stem and the tillers of a plant reside on the same compact and unelongated basal internodes under the ground (joined internodes) [7]. A tassel in maize or a panicle in rice can be produced directly from an axillary bud at the leaf axil
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