QTL Identification and Mapping in Soft Spring Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under Controlled Agroecological and Biological Testing Area Conditions with and without Nitrogen Fertilizer

Abstract

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) of agriculturally valuable traits of soft spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were mapped in two simultaneous and independent experiments that were carried out in different agronomical backgrounds with respect to nitrogen availability (i.e., with and without introduction of a mineral nitrogen fertilizer) in order to reveal the effects of physiological and genetic interaction between the genotype and the environment. In total, 94 QTLs, which determine 31 physiologically and agriculturally important traits, have been identified. The connection between the loci identified and polymorphism by certain traits has been proven. The connection between the trait expression and introduction of the fertilizer has been confirmed by both correlation analysis and the single-factor analysis of variance. The analyses of QTL and correlation, as well as the single-factor analysis of variance, showed that 15 of 31 traits varied confidently. This shows that the expression of these traits depends on the presence of nitrogen nutrition. The data obtained are important for further study of physiological and genetic regulatory mechanisms of expression of the traits that were evaluated in the system of interaction between the genotype and the environment as well as for the marker-assisted selection of wheat.