Abstract
BackgroundResistance to soil waterlogging stress is an important plant breeding objective in high rainfall or poorly drained areas across many countries in the world. The present study was conducted to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with waterlogging tolerance (e.g. leaf chlorosis, plant survival and biomass reduction) in barley and compare the QTLs identified across two seasons and in two different populations using a composite map constructed with SSRs, RFLP and Diversity Array Technology (DArT) markers.ResultsTwenty QTLs for waterlogging tolerance related traits were found in the two barley double haploid (DH) populations. Several of these QTLs were validated through replication of experiments across seasons or by co-location across populations. Some of these QTLs affected multiple waterlogging tolerance related traits, for example, QTL Qwt4-1 contributed not only to reducing barley leaf chlorosis, but also increasing plant biomass under waterlogging stress, whereas other QTLs controlled both leaf chlorosis and plant survival.ConclusionImproving waterlogging tolerance in barley is still at an early stage compared with other traits. QTLs identified in this study have made it possible to use marker assisted selection (MAS) in combination with traditional field selection to significantly enhance barley breeding for waterlogging tolerance. There may be some degree of homoeologous relationship between QTLs controlling barley waterlogging tolerance and that in other crops as discussed in this study.
Highlights
Resistance to soil waterlogging stress is an important plant breeding objective in high rainfall or poorly drained areas across many countries in the world
We report on the identification of QTLs for waterlogging tolerance in two barley double haploid (DH) populations based on leaf chlorosis, plant survival and biomass reduction after waterlogging and comparisons were made between different populations and under different growing seasons
Since the control consisted of only one replicate, due to limited glasshouse space, the results for biomass reduction need to be treated with caution
Summary
Resistance to soil waterlogging stress is an important plant breeding objective in high rainfall or poorly drained areas across many countries in the world. Waterlogging is one of the major restrictions for barley production in high rainfall areas. It causes chlorophyll, protein and RNA degradation and decreases the concentration of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, metal ions and minerals in barley shoots. Protein and RNA degradation and decreases the concentration of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, metal ions and minerals in barley shoots These can occur rapidly after the onset of flooding, precede leaf chlorosis [1,2,3], and reduce shoot and root growth, dry matter accumulation and final yield [4,5,6,7,8]. The barley collections from China, Japan and Korea contained many tolerant cultivars while those from North (page number not for citation purposes)
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