Abstract
Molecular marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC) is widely recommended for transferring favorable alleles from a donor to an elite variety. The question remains whether MABC is an effective approach to developing a competitive commercial variety. Here, we illustrate the transfer of a thermostable β-amylase allele Sd3 from wild barley into a commercial barley variety Gairdner. The elite lines were chosen for the Regional Crop Variety Test that followed a standard conventional breeding process. The results demonstrated that the Sd3 allele not only increased enzyme thermostability but dramatically enhanced diastatic power, an important malting quality trait. The BC1F1 individuals had a fundamental impact on the comprehensive agronomic and quality traits of the final progenies, demonstrating the importance of screening at the early stage of backcrossing in MABC. There was sufficient genetic variation in the BC3F3 families to select other malting quality and agronomic traits. Ten individual breeding lines with improved β-amylase thermostability also had improved yields and grain plumpness. Three elite lines with improved malting quality and agronomic traits were selected to provide a parental line to incorporate the wild barley allele for breeding a commercial variety. A new strategy should be considered that uses marker-assisted selection and backcrossing to transfer a favorable allele from a wild parent.
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Acknowledgements
The project funds were provided by the Australian Grain Research and Development Corporation (DAW00233) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (31471496, 31501309).
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CL and WZ designed the experiments; XY, XQZ, SH, and SW conducted the research; XY, WZ, and CL wrote and finalized the manuscript.
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Figure. S1
Scheme of marker-assisted selection on thermostable β-amylase through backcrossing the introgressing Sd3 allele from wild barley to a commercial variety. (JPG 29 kb)
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Xu, Y., Zhang, XQ., Harasymow, S. et al. Molecular marker-assisted backcrossing breeding: an example to transfer a thermostable β-amylase gene from wild barley. Mol Breeding 38, 63 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-018-0828-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-018-0828-8