Genetic identification of a major, novel and stably expressed QTL for effective tiller number from tetraploid wheat

Figures & data

Table 1. Statistics of the genetic map for the RIL population.

Chromosome	Number of bin markers	Length (cM)	Density (cM/bin)
1A	101	156.05	1.55
1B	69	148.07	2.15
2A	71	166.01	2.34
2B	92	184.01	2.00
3A	94	160.15	1.70
3B	50	181.84	3.64
4A	80	204.14	2.55
4B	74	85.67	1.16
5A	94	223.10	2.37
5B	118	207.39	1.76
6A	58	168.23	2.90
6B	59	167.32	2.84
7A	97	208.71	2.15
7B	97	192.10	1.98
A genome	595	1286.39	2.16
B genome	559	1166.40	2.09
Total	1154	2452.79	2.13

Figure 1. Phenotypic distribution of effective tiller number (ETN) in four environments. Different environments (E1–E4): 2017–18 (E1) and 2018–19 (E2), 2019–20 (E3), 2020–21 (E4).

Table 2. Phenotypic data effective tiller number (ETN) for the DW population at different environments.

Environment	Parents		Population
	DU	WE	Range	Mean	STD	H²
E1	9.40**	12.20	7.20–26.60	11.98	3.24
E2	9.00**	11.80	6.90–26.10	11.53	3.23
E3	8.40**	10.60	5.50–21.50	11.02	2.54
E4	8.80**	11.40	4.00–24.70	11.30	3.11
BLUP	9.04	11.50	6.79–24.00	11.46	2.67	0.93

Environments, aka. four consecutive years, 2017–18 (E1) and 2018–19 (E2), 2019–20 (E3), 2020–21 (E4); STD: standard deviation; H² : the broad-sense heritability; BLUP: phenotype values based on the best linear unbiased prediction. *Significance level at p < 0.05; **Significance level at p < 0.01.

Table 3. Correlation coefficients of ET in different environments.

Trait	Environment	E1	E2	E3	E4
ET	E1	1
	E2	0.92**	1
	E3	0.78**	0.71**	1
	E4	0.86**	0.92**	0.70**	1

Environments, aka. four consecutive years, 2017–18 (E1) and 2018–19 (E2), 2019–20 (E3), 2020–21 (E4); *Significance level at p < 0.05; **Significance level at p < 0.01.

Table 4. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) for effective tiller number (ETN) identified in multiple environments in the DW population.

QTL	Environment	Interval (cM)	Left Marker	Right Marker	LOD	PVE(%)	Add
Qetn-DW-4B.1	E1	52.60-55.12	AX-109616237	AX-109984292	3.31	12.40	−1.14
	E3	52.60-55.12	AX-109616237	AX-109984292	3.64	13.50	−0.93
	E4	52.60-55.12	AX-109616237	AX-109984292	4.15	15.25	−1.22
	BLUP	52.60-55.12	AX-109616237	AX-109984292	3.88	14.40	−1.01
Qetn-DW-4B.2	E2	64.66-65.12	AX-109270871	AX-94448564	3.24	13.00	−1.13

Environment, aka. four consecutive years, 2017–18 (E1) and 2018–19 (E2), 2019–20 (E3), 2020–21 (E4); BLUP best linear unbiased prediction; LOD logarithm of odds; PVE phenotype variance explained; Add additive effect, positive values: alleles from DU09123, negative values: alleles from WE34021.

Figure 2. Genetic maps of the major QTL Qetn-DW-4B.1 and its effect. *Significance level at p < 0.05, **Significance level at p < 0.01.

Figure 3. Student’s t-test against the two haplotype groups from DW population with the positive or negative alleles of Qetn -DW-4B.1 plant height (PH), flowering date (FD), kernel number per spike (KNS), spike length (SL), spikelet number per spike (SNS), kernel length (KL) and width (KW), thousand kernel weight (TKW), and kernel weight per spike (KWS). *Significance level at p < 0.05, **Significance level at p < 0.01.

Figure 4. Orthologs in the intervals of the major QTL Qetn -DW-4B.1.

Data availability statement

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article and its supplementary information files; further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.