Induction of Semi-Dwarf Trait to a Three Pistil Tall Mutant Through Breeding With Increased Grain Numbers in Wheat

Ahsan Irshad; Huijun Guo; Shoaib Ur Rehman; Jiayu Gu; Rana Imtiaz Ahmed; Manzoor Hussain; Ali Ammar; Imtiaz Ali; Akash Zafar; Chaojie Wang; Chunyun Zhou; Lin Qiu; Luxiang Liu

doi:10.3389/fgene.2022.828866

Induction of Semi-Dwarf Trait to a Three Pistil Tall Mutant Through Breeding With Increased Grain Numbers in Wheat

Front Genet. 2022 Feb 8:13:828866. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2022.828866. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ National Engineering Laboratory of Crop Molecular Breeding, National Center of Space Mutagenesis for Crop Improvement, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
² Institute of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture, Multan, Pakistan.
³ Regional Agricultural Research Institute, Bahawalpur, Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad, Pakistan.

Abstract

Multi-ovary wheat (three pistil) is a unique germplasm for the seed production of hybrid wheat. The purpose of the present study was to transfer the multi-ovary trait to semi-dwarf plants to increase the production of grains in wheat crops. Therefore, tall, semi-dwarf, and dwarf plants were crossed with plants with the three-pistil trait. A three-pistil tall plant was used as the female parent, while tall (Synthetic hexaploid), semi-dwarf, and dwarf plants were used as male parents. F1 and F2 progenies with parents were planted in 2015-16 using RCBD. The outcome of the crosses showed that multi-ovary tall plants gave significant difference for all five traits (days to maturity, plant height, number of seeds per spike, grain weight per spike, and grain yield per unit area) in both generations. The greatest number of grains per spike and grain yield per unit area were obtained from the cross of three-pistil tall and dwarf parent (P1/P6) in the F1 and F2 generations. The cross also resulted in a significant reduction in height (96 cm). Further heterosis studies conducted with crosses between three-pistil tall and dwarf parent (P1/P6) showed the greatest heterosis and heterobeltiosis for the number of grains per spike (60.0 and 26.19%, respectively) and grain yield per m² (27.68 and 2.85%, respectively). In the case of grain weight per spike, the heterosis value was also positive and significant (17.7). Meanwhile, for other traits, their values were negative for heterosis and heterobeltiosis. High numbers of grains and grain weight were found to be associated with positive heterobeltiosis and in turn the grain yield per m², but plant height and maturity had negative affirmation with heterobeltiosis. Heterosis studies also indicated the dominant gene action for the three-pistil trait. Thus, the study clearly signified that grain yield can be increased by using the multi-ovary genotype with the semi-dwarf height. This new germplasm will be helpful for breeders to increase the production of wheat crops in the southern climate of Pakistan.

Keywords: breeding; heterosis; semi dwarf; synthetic hexaploid; three pistil.