Abstract only

Crossbreeding is a fundamental tool for the genetic improvement of crops and is actively used to increase adaptability to environmental adverse conditions, such as water stress. On the other hand, traditional breeding is very time-consuming and can be largely improved by the use of new and more efficient selection criterion, allowing to associate specific genetic and/or agronomical and/or morphological traits to drought tolerance. The Molecular Assisted Breeding (MAB) is a modern breeding technique based on the use of genetic molecular markers as a selection tool. The Triticum durum Dehydration Responsive Factor 1 (TdDRF1) gene codifies for transcription factors belonging to a wide multigene family, endowed of the AP2 DNA-binding domain, in durum wheat. It is a ?regulatory gene?, modulator of gene expression, that plays a determining role in the plant molecular response to water scarcity, inducing the expression of several downstream ?functional genes? (dehydrins, etc.), which more directly contribute to the increase of the resistance/tolerance. Thus it can be considered as a good candidate to be used in MAB. Previously, in view to identify one or more molecular markers associated to TdDRF1 gene, we carried out a biodiversity study based on sequence polymorphisms, which were identified by collecting several TdDRF1 genomic sequences from different wheat genotypes. Herein, we report the design of an allelic discrimination assay, to discriminate different ?aplotypes? of TdDRF1 gene, and show preliminary results on the analysis of a population of 177 durum wheat Recombinant Inbred Lines (RILs), produced by CIMMYT. IThe RILs come from MOHAWK-P1MP x COCORIT-P2MP crossbreeding: both the parents, whose ?aplotypes? can be molecularly distinguished, are adapted to arid soil of Arizona and California and show high yields.

Global Wheat Program

English

Lucia Segura

INT2585

CIMMYT Staff Publications Collection