Chaojie Wang, Lili Zhang, Yongdun Xie, Xiaofeng Guo, Yanfang Zhang, Yamin Zhang, Ahsan Irshad, Yuting Li, Huihui Qian, Doudou Jing, Guangyao Liu, Kaiming Wu, Na Yang, Guoli Yang, Yulong Song, Huijun Guo, Huiyan Zhao, Chengshe Wang, Luxiang Liu, Gaisheng Zhang & Shoucai Ma

Theoretical and Applied Genetics June 2022; vol. 135: 1879–1891

Key message

A superior allele of wheat gene TaGL3.3-5B was identified and could be used in marker-assisted breeding in wheat.

Abstract

Identifying the main genes which mainly regulate the yield-associated traits can significantly increase the wheat production. In this study, gene TaGL3.3 was cloned from common wheat according to the sequence of OsPPKL3. A SNP in the 8th exon of TaGL3.3-5B, T/C in coding sequence (CDS), which resulted in an amino acid change (Val/Ala), was identified between the low 1000-kernel weight (TKW) wheat Chinese Spring and the high TKW wheat Xinong 817 (817). Subsequently, association analysis in the mini-core collection (MCC) and the recombinant inbred lines (RIL) revealed that the allele TaGL3.3-5B-C (from 817) was significantly correlated with higher TKW. The high frequency of TaGL3.3-5B-C in the Chinese modern wheat cultivars indicated that it was selected positively in wheat breeding programs. The overexpression of TaGL3.3-5B-C in Arabidopsis resulted in shorter pods and longer grains than those of wild-type counterparts. Additionally, TaGL3.3 expressed a tissue-specific pattern in wheat as revealed by qRT-PCR. We also found that 817 showed higher expression of TaGL3.3 than that in Chinese Spring (CS) during the seed development. These results demonstrate that TaGL3.3 plays an important role in the formation of seed size and weight. Allele TaGL3.3-5B-C is associated with larger and heavier grains that are beneficial to wheat yield improvement.

See: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00122-022-04081-4