QTL Mapping for Important Agronomic Traits in Synthetic Hexaploid Wheat Derived from Aegiliops tauschiissp. tauschii

Aegiliops tauschiiis classified into two subspecies: Ae. tauschiissp. tauschiiand Ae. tauschiissp. strangulata.Novel genetic variations exist in Ae. tauschiissp. tauschiithat can be utilized in wheat improvement. We synthesized a hexaploid wheat genotype (SHW-L1) by crossing an Ae. tauschiissp. tauschiiaccession (AS60) with a tetraploid wheat genotype (AS2255). A population consisting of 171 F8recombinant inbred lines was developed from SHW-L1 and Chuanmai 32 to identify QTLs associated with agronomic traits. A new genetic map with high density was constructed and used to detect the QTLs for heading date, kernel width, spike length, spikelet number, and thousand kernel weight. A total of 30 putative QTLs were identified for five investigated traits. Thirteen QTLs were located on D genomes of SHW-L1, six of them showed positive effect on agronomic traits. Chromosome region flanked by wPt-6133–wPt-8134on 2D carried five environment-independent QTLs. Each QTL accounted for more than 10% phenotypic variance. These QTLs were highly consistent across environments and should be used in wheat breeding.