Harnessing the diversity of wild emmer wheat for genetic improvement of durum wheat

Izzat Sidahmed Ali Tahir,Nasrein Mohamed Kamal,Modather Galal Abdeldaim Abdalla,Hisashi Tsujimoto,Yasir Serag Alnor Gorafi,Mohammed Yousif Balla

doi:10.1007/s00122-022-04062-7

Izzat Sidahmed Ali Tahir, Nasrein Mohamed Kamal + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-022-04062-7

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Abstract

Key messageThe multiple derivative lines (MDLs) characterized in this study offer a promising strategy for harnessing the diversity of wild emmer wheat for durum and bread wheat improvement.Crop domestication has diminished genetic diversity and reduced phenotypic plasticity and adaptation. Exploring the adaptive capacity of wild progenitors offer promising opportunities to improve crops. We developed a population of 178 BC1F6 durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum) lines by crossing and backcrossing nine wild emmer wheat (T. turgidum ssp. dicoccoides) accessions with the common durum wheat cultivar ‘Miki 3’. Here, we describe the development of this population, which we named as multiple derivative lines (MDLs), and demonstrated its suitability for durum wheat breeding. We genotyped the MDL population, the parents, and 43 Sudanese durum wheat cultivars on a Diversity Array Technology sequencing platform. We evaluated days to heading and plant height in Dongola (Sudan) and in Tottori (Japan). The physical map length of the MDL population was 9 939 Mb with an average of 1.4 SNP/Mb. The MDL population had greater diversity than the Sudanese cultivars. We found high gene exchange between the nine wild emmer accessions and the MDL population, indicating that the MDL captured most of the diversity in the wild emmer accessions. Genome-wide association analysis identified three loci for days to heading on chromosomes 1A and 5A in Dongola and one on chromosome 3B in Tottori. For plant height, common genomic loci were found on chromosomes 4A and 4B in both locations, and one genomic locus on chromosome 7B was found only in Dongola. The results revealed that the MDLs are an effective strategy towards harnessing wild emmer wheat diversity for wheat genetic improvement.

Highlights

Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum, genome BBAA) is a tetraploid wheat species (2n = 28), mainly used for human consumption in the form of pasta, bulgur, couscous, and some bread types (Al-Khayri et al 2019).Communicated by Emma Mace.In terms of consumption and area under cultivation, durum wheat ranks second after bread wheat with 5% of the total cultivated wheat area (Mastrangelo and Cattivelli 2021)
We developed a population harboring the diversity of the two wild emmer wheat (WEW) lineages by crossing and backcrossing nine T. turgidum ssp. dicoccoides accessions with the common durum wheat cultivar ‘Miki 3’
We evaluated days to heading and plant height in Dongola and Tottori to validate the suitability of the multiple derivative lines (MDLs) population for marker-trait associations (MTAs) identification and to dissect the WEW genes

Summary

Introduction

The loss of genetic diversity in modern durum wheat cultivars restricts the improvement of durum wheat for high productivity and increases its vulnerability to biotic and abiotic stresses (Abdurakhmonov and Abdukarimov 2008). Breeders have adopted the application of genomics, phenotyping technologies, and analytical tools in breeding diverse populations to maximize opportunities for better selection towards the improvement of staple food crops such as wheat. To this end, wheat breeders focus on enriching the gene pool by reintroducing valuable wild alleles that were changed, modified, lost, or left behind during the domestication process (Tsujimoto et al 2015; Merchuk-Ovnat et al 2016; Gorafi et al 2018). The diversity in WEW needs to be explored as it played a central role in the domestication of durum wheat

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