Marker-assisted introgression of genes into rye translocation leads to the improvement in bread making quality of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

Introgression of genes from related species can be a powerful way to genetically improve crop yields, but selection for one trait can come at the cost to others. Wheat varieties with translocation of the short arm of chromosome 1 from the B genome of wheat (1BS) with the short arm of chromosome 1 from rye (1RS) are popular globally for their positive effect on yield and stress resistance. Unfortunately, this translocation (1BL.1RS) is also associated with poor bread making quality, mainly due to the presence of Sec-1 on its proximal end, encoding secalin proteins, and the absence of Glu-B3/Gli-B1-linked loci on its distal end, encoding low molecular weight glutenin subunits (LMW-GS). The present study aims to replace these two important loci on the 1RS arm with the wheat 1BS loci, in two popular Indian wheat varieties, PBW550 and DBW17, to improve their bread-making quality. Two donor lines in the cultivar Pavon background with absence of the Sec-1 locus and presence of the Glu-B3/Gli-B1 locus, respectively, were crossed and backcrossed with these two selected wheat varieties. In the advancing generations, marker assisted foreground selection was done for Sec-1- and Glu-B3/Gli-B1+ loci while recurrent parent recovery was done with the help of SSR markers. BC2F5 and BC2F6 near isosgenic lines (NILs) with absence of Sec-1 and presence of Glu-B3/Gli-B1 loci were evaluated for two years in replicated yield trials. As a result of this selection, thirty promising lines were generated that demonstrated improved bread making quality but also balanced with improved yield-related traits compared to the parental strains. The study demonstrates the benefits of using marker-assisted selection to replace a few loci with negative effects within larger alien translocations for crop improvement.