Novel PHOTOPERIOD-1 gene variants associate with yield-related and root-angle traits in European bread wheat

PHOTOPERIOD-1 homoeologous gene copies play a pivotal role in regulation of flowering time in wheat. Here, we show that their influence also extends to spike and shoot architecture and even impacts root development. The sequence diversity of three homoeologous copies of the PHOTOPERIOD-1 gene in European winter wheat was analyzed by Oxford Nanopore amplicon-based multiplex sequencing and molecular markers in a panel of 194 cultivars representing breeding progress over the past 5 decades. A strong, consistent association with an average 8% increase in grain yield was observed for the PpdA1-Hap1 haplotype across multiple environments. This haplotype was found to be linked in 51% of cultivars to the 2NS/2AS translocation, originally introduced from Aegilops ventricosa, which leads to an overestimation of its effect. However, even in cultivars without the 2NS/2AS translocation, PpdA1-Hap1 was significantly associated with increased grain yield, kernel per spike and kernel per m² under optimal growth conditions, conferring a 4% yield advantage compared to haplotype PpdA1-Hap4. In contrast to Ppd-B1 and Ppd-D1, the Ppd-A1 gene exhibits novel structural variations and a high number of SNPs, highlighting the evolutionary changes that have occurred in this region over the course of wheat breeding history. Additionally, cultivars carrying the photoperiod-insensitive Ppd-D1a allele not only exhibit earlier heading, but also deeper roots compared to those with photoperiod-sensitive alleles under German conditions. PCR and KASP assays have been developed that can be effectively employed in marker-assisted breeding programs to introduce these favorable haplotypes.