Genotypic variation in specific leaf area for genetic improvement of early vigour in wheat

By G. Rebetzke, T. Botwright, C. S. Moore, R. Richards, A. Condon. 2004

148 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Rapid leaf area development early in the season has potential to increase weed competitiveness, water use efficiency and grain yield of winter cereals. Greater early vigour, defined here as an increase in seedling leaf area, is partly associated with a larger specific leaf area (SLA). Selection in a breeding program for greater SLA should contribute to genetic increases in early vigour. However, little is known of factors influencing genotypic variation for SLA of seedling leaves. Random sets of wheat and barley genotypes were evaluated in field, glasshouse and outdoor tray studies for seedling characteristics including SLA, plant biomass and leaf area. Glasshouse-grown plants produced significantly (P < 0:01) higher SLA (308 cm2 g1) than outdoor (272 cm2 g1) plants. Genotypic differences for SLA were large, ranging between 276 and 335 cm2 g1 for wheat genotypes Stiletto and Tobari ‘S’, respectively. Broad-sense heritability on a genotype-mean basis varied from 51 to 68%, depending on environment type. Genotype year interaction was smallest and heritability largest for outdoor (seedling tray and field) environments indicating the need for progeny evaluation in the field, or after preliminary evaluation in trays grown outdoors. Genetic correlations for SLA and leaf area were strongest for plants evaluated outdoors (rg ¼ 0:60–0.96, P < 0:05) while the genetic correlation for leaf 1 width and SLA was significantly (P < 0:01) different from zero in all environments (rg ¼ 0:45– 0.86). Significant (P < 0:05) genetic variance was observed for SLA in two segregating wheat populations evaluated over 2 years. Genotypic variation in SLAwas under additive genetic control with small to moderate narrow-sense heritability (h2 ¼ 1– 51% on a single-plant basis). The higher heritability for leaf 1 width and its strong genetic correlation with SLA and leaf area indicates the value of leaf width in integrating genotypic variation for SLA toward selection of greater early vigour in wheat.

Subfields: Agronomy and Crop Science, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8967222765536d8192874147931ef90752d32025

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Citations in the corpus

Water use efficiency in C3 cereals under Mediterranean conditions: a review of physiological aspects (2007, background): “For instance, compared with wheat, barley achieve higher leaf area at early stages of the crops (e.g. López-Castañeda et al. 1995; Rebetzke et al. 2004), decreasing the loss of water by soil evaporation.”
Breeding for high water-use efficiency. (2004, background): “The high vigour traits of large embryo, large coleoptile tillers, and greater SLA are now being combined in GA-sensitive semi-dwarf backgrounds so as to achieve early vigour much more like barley (Richards et al., 2002).”
Causes and consequences of variation in leaf mass per area (LMA): a meta-analysis. (2009, background): “In most cases the variation is 10–50% (Rebetzke et al., 2004; van Rijn et al., 2005), but alfalfa (Medicago sativa) genotypes vary more than a factor of two in LMA (Pearce et al.”
The Rht13 dwarfing gene reduces peduncle length and plant height to increase grain number and yield (2011, methodology): “These heads were individually threshed and sown into spaced F5:6 rows in a nursery during the summer of 2002–2003 along with two near-isogenic wheat sets (the APD and KCD NIL sets described in Richards (1992)) containing 0, 1 or 2 GAI dwarfing genes.”