A novel quantitative trait locus for barley yellow dwarf virus resistance and kernel traits on chromosome 2D of a wheat cultivar Jagger

Barley yellow dwarf (BYD) is one of the most serious viral diseases in cereal crops worldwide. Identification of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) underlining wheat resistance to barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) is essential for breeding BYDV-tolerant wheat cultivars. In this study, a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population was developed from the cross between Jagger (PI 593688) and a Jagger mutant (JagMut1095). A linkage map of 3106 cM consisting of 21 wheat chromosomes was developed using 1003 unique single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the RIL population and was used to identify QTLs for BYDV resistance and yield-related traits, including 1000-kernel weight (TKW), kernel area (KA), kernel width (KW), and kernel length (KL). QByd.hwwg-2DL, a QTL on chromosome arm 2DL for BYDV resistance, was consistently identified in three field experiments and explained 11.6%-44.5% of the phenotypic variation. For yield-related traits, six major and repeatable QTLs were identified on 1AS (QKa.hwwg-1AS), 2DL (QTkw.hwwg-2DL, QKa.hwwg-2DL, QKw.hwwg-2DL, and QKl.hwwg-2DL), and 5AL (QKw.hwwg-5AL). The major QTLs on chromosome 2DL for TKW, KA, KW, and KL were mapped between 621 and 643 Mb, overlapping with QByd.hwwg-2DL with all the favorable alleles from Jagger. This study reports the first native BYDV resistance QTL (QByd.hwwg-2DL) originating from common wheat and tightly linked markers to the QTL for improvement of wheat BYDV resistance in wheat breeding.