Improvement for agronomic traits of partial waxy wheat by combination of backcrossing with a PCR-based DNA marker.

To improve agronomic traits of partial waxy wheat, crossing between Chinese Baihuomai and wheat cultivars PH85-16, Jinan 17, and Yannong 15 was performed. The progeny plants were further backcrossed to these cultivars as recurrent parents for five generations. To get homozygous plants with the null allele at the Wx-D1 locus, self-pollination was carried out in the BC(5)F(1) generation. Through another three generations, 6 partial waxy wheat lines were obtained, which had similar agronomic performance as their recurrent parents and carried the null allele at the Wx-D1 locus. In each generation, the Wx-D1 locus was identified by a PCR-based DNA marker and the agronomic traits were examined in progeny plants. The results from this study indicate that the use of backcrossing with a PCR-based DNA marker was useful in waxy wheat breeding. These partial waxy wheat lines can be used in field production.