Cytological and molecular characterizations of a novel 2A nullisomic line derived from a widely-grown wheat cultivar Zhoumai 18 conferring male sterility

PeerJ. 2020 Oct 30:8:e10275. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10275. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

A dwarf, multi-pistil and male sterile dms mutant was previously reported by us. However, the genetic changes in this dms are unclear. To examine the genetic changes, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) association, chromosome counting, and high-resolution chromosome fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques were employed. By comparing tall plants (T) with dwarf plants (D) in the offspring of dms mutant plants, SNP association analysis indicated that most SNPs were on chromosome 2A. There were three types in offspring of dms plants, with 42, 41 and 40 chromosomes respectively. High-resolution chromosome painting analysis demonstrated that T plants had all 42 wheat chromosomes; the medium plants (M) had 41 chromosomes, lacking one chromosome 2A; while D plants had 40 wheat chromosomes, and lacked both 2A chromosomes. These data demonstrated that dms resulted from a loss of chromosome 2A. We identified 23 genes on chromosome 2A which might be involved in the development of stamens or pollen grains. These results lay a solid foundation for further analysis of the molecular mechanisms of wheat male sterility. Because D plants can be used as a female parent to cross with other wheat genotypes, dms is a unique germplasm for any functional study of chromosome 2A and wheat breeding specifically targeting genes on 2A.

Keywords: Chromosome; Nullisomic line; Pollen development; Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.); dms.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, 31571646) and the Key Project of Co-construction State Key Laboratory of Wheat and Maize Crop Science in 2020. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.