Abstract
Dwarfing genes not only reduce the height of triticale plants, but also have pleiotropic effects on important agronomic traits. An important task for breeding is to evaluate the effects of gibberellin responsive (GAR) and gibberellin-insensitive (GAI) dwarfing genes in one genotype. In the greenhouse experiment, we evaluated the effects of the GAI gene Rht-B1b of wheat and the GAR gene Ddw1 of rye on height and the main agronomic traits in two connecting populations derived from crossing Ddw1 donors (cv. ‘Mudrets’ and cv. ‘Valentin 90’) with a Rht-B1b donor (cv. ‘Dublet’). The results show a strong decrease in height under the influence of Ddw1 in both populations by more than 30%. In this case, Rht-B1b in the presence of Ddw1 does not lead to a significant decrease in the height of the spring triticale; thus, this is not likely to be included in breeding programs in order to further reduce the height in the presence of Ddw1 in the spring triticale germplasm. However, Ddw1 reduces the 1000 grain weight, while Rht-B1b increases the grain number per spike and grain number per spikelet. Thus, our studies have demonstrated the negative effect of Ddw1 on spring triticale productivity of the main spike in the greenhouse experiment, which can be partially compensated by Rht-B1b.
Highlights
Triticale plays an increasingly important role in agriculture
We analyzed the effect of Ddw1 and Rht-B1b on the height of spring triticale plants in two connected populations
This provided an assessment of the manifestation of these genes in a different genetic background. This shows that Ddw1 reduces the height of spring triticale plants in both by approximately 30%
Summary
Triticale plays an increasingly important role in agriculture. Products from this crop are in demand in the livestock sector as feed, in the alcohol-production industry, and have good prospects in the baking industry. Due to its high ecological plasticity, triticale is capable of producing stable yields under unstable agriculture. Triticale is grown in Europe, and among the leaders of its production are Germany, Poland, Belarus, France, and Russia [1]. One of the strategies to increase the productivity of triticale may be optimization of the plant architecture defined by tillering, stature, and spike morphology [2]. Plant architecture is one of the Agriculture 2019, 9, 119; doi:10.3390/agriculture9060119 www.mdpi.com/journal/agriculture
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