Pyramiding of genes for grain protein content, grain quality, and rust resistance in eleven Indian bread wheat cultivars: a multi-institutional effort

• Published in: Molecular breeding 2022-04, Vol.42 (4), p.21-21, Article 21
• Main Authors: Gupta, Pushpendra K., Balyan, Harindra S., Chhuneja, Parveen, Jaiswal, Jai P., Tamhankar, Shubhada, Mishra, Vinod K., Bains, Navtej S., Chand, Ramesh, Joshi, Arun K., Kaur, Satinder, Kaur, Harinderjeet, Mavi, Gurvinder S., Oak, Manoj, Sharma, Achla, Srivastava, Puja, Sohu, Virinder S., Prasad, Pramod, Agarwal, Priyanka, Akhtar, Moin, Badoni, Saurabh, Chaudhary, Reeku, Gahlaut, Vijay, Gangwar, Rishi Pal, Gautam, Tinku, Jaiswal, Vandana, Kumar, Ravi Shekhar, Kumar, Sachin, Shamshad, M., Singh, Anupama, Taygi, Sandhya, Vasistha, Neeraj Kumar, Vishwakarma, Manish Kumar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Climatic zones; Crop yield; Cultivars; Disease resistance; Genes; Glutenin; GPC gene; Grain; Life Sciences; Loci; Molecular biology; Nutritive value; Plant biology; Plant breeding; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plant Pathology; Plant Physiology; Plant Sciences; Proteins; Rust fungi; Wheat
• ISSN: 1380-3743; 1572-9788
• DOI: 10.1007/s11032-022-01277-w

Improvement of grain protein content (GPC), loaf volume, and resistance to rusts was achieved in 11 Indian wheat cultivars that are widely grown in four different agro-climatic zones of India. This involved use of marker-assisted backcross breeding (MABB) for introgression and pyramiding of the following genes: (i) the high GPC gene Gpc-B1 ; (ii) HMW glutenin subunits 5 + 10 at Glu-D1 loci, and (iii) rust resistance genes, Yr36 , Yr15 , Lr24 , and Sr24 . GPC increased by 0.8 to 3.3%, although high GPC was generally associated with yield penalty. Further selection among high GPC lines allowed identification of progenies with higher GPC associated with improvement in 1000-grain weight and grain yield in the backgrounds of the following four cultivars: NI5439, UP2338, UP2382, and HUW468. The high GPC progenies (derived from NI5439) were also improved for grain quality using HMW glutenin subunits 5 + 10 at Glu-D1 loci. Similarly, progenies combining high GPC and rust resistance were obtained in the backgrounds of following five cultivars: Lok1, HD2967, PBW550, PBW621, and DBW1. The improved pre-bred lines developed following multi-institutional effort should prove a valuable source for the development of cultivars with improved nutritional quality and rust resistance in the ongoing wheat breeding programmes.