Information on the genetic control of the quality traits of soft wheat (Triticum aestivum L. em. Thell) is essential for breeding. Gluten strength is a measure of quality and has particular relevance to soft wheat as identity-preserved programs for strong-gluten soft red winter wheat in the eastern US that is essential to effective biscuit industry. Identifying areas of the soft wheat genome harboring genes for functional end-use quality may assist in selective breeding and in understanding the genetic components of this trait. Our objective was to identify Quantitative Trait Loci associated with end-use quality.
We developed 150 F4-derived lines from a cross of Pioneer 26R46 × SS550 and tested them in four environments. We measured flour yield (FY), softness equivalent (SE), test weight (TW), flour protein content (FP), alkaline water retention capacity (AWRC), and solvent retention capacity (SRC) of water (WA), lactic acid (LA), sucrose (SU), sodium carbonate (SO) SRCs. Analyses of variance for the ten quality parameters detected a significant difference between parental means for nine traits except for FP. Recombinant inbred lines presented transgressive segregation and high heritability (0.67 to 0.90) for all traits. Strong positive correlations between AWRC with WA, SO, SU and strong negative correlations of FY with AWRC and the SRC traits were observed. We report 28 marker-trait associations. Many QTL were coincident and in accordance with the trait correlations. There were 10 marker-trait associations from four regions for these traits and only one was not coincident with another.
We detected QTL distributed on 8 chromosomes. Loci associated with FP mapped on chromosomes 2B, 5A and 5D explained 16 %, 10 % and 12.9 % of the variation for this trait, respectively. QTLs on chromosome 2B co-segregated for SE. SE was negatively correlated (-0.26) with FP. A positive significant correlation between FP and LA (0.36) was detected, yet; the QTL for these two traits were not coincident in this study. The QTL with the greatest effects were located on chromosome 1A, 1B, and 6B with each affecting at least five of ten quality traits. In particular, QTL with the largest effect on LA and consequently gluten strength were on chromosomes 1A with LOD 9 that explained 42.6 % of LA variation and QTLs on chromosome 1B with LOD 9 that explained 33 % of the variation in LA. Loci on chromosomes 1A and 1B were also important contributors of additive effects for this trait with an increase of 6.5 % and 5.6 %, respectively. The largest QTL on 1A co-segregated for AWRC (25 %), SO (26 %) and SE (25 %), and FY (15 %) may explicate why Pioneer 26R46 has such superior quality. All alleles that increased a trait came from the parent with the highest trait value. This suggests that in any population that marker-assisted selection for these quality traits could be conducted by simply selecting for the alleles from the parent with the best phenotype.
Quantitative trait loci associated with soft wheat quality in a cross of good by moderate quality parents