The advent of molecular markers has revolutionised the genetic analysis of complex traits, and reports on the location of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for yield for many cereal crops are commonplace for barley, rice and maize.
However, QTL analysis of quantitative traits in bread wheat has in part been hampered by its large genome size. Thus, many markers are required to cover the whole genome adequately. In addition, because of the relatively recent origin of the species, hexaploid wheat also suffers from relatively low levels of polymorphism.
In consequence, detailed genetic maps of the whole genome are much more difficult to achieve than for most other crop species. A few genetic maps covering all of the hexaploid wheat genome have been reported, the most detailed of which is the International Triticeae Mapping Initiative (ITMI) wheat map. To increase the levels of polymorphism, several of these maps have been made by crossing relatively distantly related parental lines. The number of whole genome maps developed from crosses between wheat cultivars or breeding lines is more limited.
We have used in this project a newly developed bread wheat mapping population generated from the cross between hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes Chinese Spring (CS) and SQ1 (a high abscisic acid breeding line). Although one of the parents used for this mapping population (Chinese Spring) is unsuitable agronomically, it is well characterised genetically, and many aneuploid stocks are available to help assign chromosomal locations to molecular markers. We added a further 38 informative markers, mainly SSRs, to a final map containing 449 loci.
This was used for QTL detection and discovery. This map is now available to the public for studies on wheat and for comparative genomics.
Habash DZ, Bernard S, Schondelmaier J, Weyen J and Quarrie SA (2007) A genetic study of nitrogen use in hexaploid wheat in relation to N utilisation, development and yield. Theor Appl Genet. 114(3)403-419.
Quarrie, SA; Steed, A; Calestani, C; Semikhodskii, A; Lebreton, C; Chinoy, C; Steele, N; Pljevljakusic, D; Waterman, E; Weyen, J; Schondelmaier, J; Habash, DZ; Farmer, P; Saker, L; Clarkson, DT; Abugalieva, A; Yessimbekova, M; Turuspekov, Y; Abugalieva, S; Tuberosa, R; Sanguineti, MC; Hollington, PA; Aragues, R; Royo, A; Dodig, D. 2005. A high-density genetic map of hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) from the cross Chinese Spring X SQ1 and its use to compare QTLs for grain yield across a range of environments. Theor Appl Genet. 110 (5): 865-880