Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Breeding
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1499055

Meta-QTL Mapping for Wheat Thousand Kernel Weight

Provisionally accepted
  • Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, Sichuan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Wheat domestication and subsequent genetic improvement have yielded cultivated species with larger seeds compared to wild ancestors. Increasing thousand kernel weight (TKW) remains a crucial goal in many wheat breeding programs. To identify genomic regions influencing TKW across diverse genetic populations, we performed a comprehensive meta-analysis of quantitative trait loci (MQTL), integrating 993 initial QTL from 120 independent mapping studies over recent decades. We refined 242 loci into 66 MQTL, with an average confidence interval (CI) 3.06 times smaller than that of the original QTL. In these 66 MQTL regions, a total of 4,913 candidate genes related to TKW were identified, involved in ubiquitination, phytohormones, G-proteins, photosynthesis, and microRNAs. Expression analysis of the candidate genes showed that 95 were specific to grain and might potentially affect TKW at different seed development stages. These findings enhance our understanding of the genetic factors associated with TKW in wheat, providing reliable MQTL and potential candidate genes for genetic improvement of this trait.

    Keywords: wheat, Thousand kernel weight, Meta-analysis, QTL mapping, Genetic populations

    Received: 20 Sep 2024; Accepted: 25 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Tan, Guo, Dong, Li, Chen, Cheng, Pu, Yuan and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jirui Wang, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, 625014, Sichuan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.