Quantitative trait loci associated with soft wheat quality in a cross of good by moderate quality parents

Information on the genetic control of the quality traits of soft wheat (Triticum aestivum) is essential for breeding. Our objective was to identify QTL associated with end-use quality. We developed 150 F4-derived lines from a cross of Pioneer 26R46 × SS550 and tested them in four environments. We measured flour yield (FY), softness equivalent (SE), test weight (TW), flour protein content (FP), alkaline water retention capacity (AWRC), and solvent retention capacity (SRC) of water (WA), lactic acid (LA), sucrose (SU), sodium carbonate (SO). Parents differed for nine traits, transgressive segregants were noted, and heritability was high (0.67 to 0.90) for all traits. We detected QTL distributed on eight genomic regions. The QTL with the greatest effects were located on chromosome 1A, 1B, and 6B with each affecting at least five of ten quality traits. Pioneer 26R46 is one of the best quality soft wheats. The large-effect QTL on 1A novel and accounted for much of the variation for AWRC (r² = 0.26), SO (0.26) and SE (0.25), and FY (0.15) and may explain why Pioneer 26R46 has such superior quality. All alleles that increased a trait came from the parent with the highest trait value. This suggests that in any population that marker-assisted selection for these quality traits could be conducted by simply selecting for the alleles at key loci from the parent with the best phenotype without prior mapping.