Wheat grain number: identification of favorable physiological traits in an elite double haploid population.

GARCIA G A; SERRAGO R A; GONZÁLEZ FG; SLAFER GA; REYNOLDS, M

FIELD CROPS RESEARCH

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2014 vol. 168 p. 126 - 134

0378-4290

A detailed and accurate phenotyping of mapping populations is an important "bottleneck" for the under-standing of the phenotype?genotype relationships. Grain number per unit area (GN), the main wheatyield component, can be analyzed through physiological components as spike dry weight at flowering,determined by crop growth rate and biomass partitioning to spike during stem elongation phase, andfruiting efficiency. The phenotypic variability of these physiological traits responsible for variation inGN and the relationships among them was analyzed in an elite wheat doubled-haploid (DH) popula-tion grown in two different environments. Positive transgressive segregation (i.e. DH lines that exceedparental phenotypic values) was observed for all GN determining traits, suggesting that increases in GNcould be achieved through their improvement. However, focusing on top DH lines, which represent a fea-sible genetic improvement, fruiting efficiency was the most relevant physiological trait for consistentlyimproving GN, and thereby grain yield, in both environments.©