AUTHOR=Gao Huiming , Xu Xiaozhe , Ai Pengfei , Luo Fuyi , Guo Peng , Ma Pengtao 

TITLE=Identification of the Powdery Mildew Resistance in Chinese Wheat Cultivar Heng 4568 and its Evaluation in Marker-Assisted Selection

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2022.819844

DOI=10.3389/fgene.2022.819844

ISSN=1664-8021

ABSTRACT=<p>Powdery mildew induced by <italic>Blumeria graminis</italic> f. sp. <italic>Tritici</italic> (<italic>Bgt</italic>) has a devastating impact on global wheat yield and quality. Host resistance is the most effective and economical means to control this disease. In this study, Heng 4568, an elite wheat cultivar, shows high resistance to 12 <italic>Bgt</italic> isolates from different regions in China at the seedling stage. Genetic analysis demonstrates that the powdery mildew resistance in Heng 4568 is conferred by a single dominant locus, temporarily designated <italic>PmH4568</italic>. Furthermore, <italic>PmH4568</italic> is mapped to the reported <italic>Pm2</italic> interval on chromosome 5DS with five <italic>Pm2</italic> linked markers and flanked by the markers <italic>Bwm20</italic> and <italic>Bwm21</italic> with a genetic distance of 0.3 and 0.6 cM, respectively. To further investigate the relationship between <italic>PmH4568</italic> and <italic>Pm2</italic>, the diagnostic marker <italic>Pm2b-map-3</italic> of <italic>Pm2</italic> is used to genotype the F<sub>2:3</sub> population derived from the cross Heng 4568 × Daimai 2173. Notably, there is no recombination found, indicating that <italic>PmH4568</italic> is also probably a <italic>Pm2</italic> allele. In addition, five closely linked markers as well as one diagnostic marker are successfully developed and tested in 16 wheat cultivars from different agro-ecological areas in China, which have potential applications in molecular breeding by marker-assisted selection.</p>