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With the application of hybrid wheat, lodging is becoming one of the major factors limiting high yield in its production. However, few studies have focused on combining ability and heterosis analysis of stem-related traits. In this study, 24 crosses were made according to NCII genetic design, using the three (photo-sensitive male sterile lines)×eight (restorer lines) incomplete diallel crosses. The length of basal second internode (LBSI) and breaking strength of basal second internode (BSBSI) as well as other stem-related traits were used to perform the principal component analysis (PCA), combining ability and heterosis analysis. The PCA results showed that the variables could be classified into two main factors, which were named as the positive factor (factor 1) and the negative factor (factor 2), and accounted for 52.3 and 33.2%, respectively, of the total variance in different variables, combined with the analysis for index weight indicated that the factor 1-related traits play positive roles in lodging resistance formation of hybrids. Combining ability variance analysis indicated that its genetic performance was mainly dominated by additive gene effects, and the hybrid combinations with higher lodging resistance can be selected by using of 14GF6085 (R1), 14GF6343-2 (R4), 14GF6937 (R6), 14GF7433-1 (R7), and BS1086 (M3), which are with the features with lower general combining ability (GCA) effects of factor 2-related traits whereas higher GCA effects of factor 1-related traits. The heterosis analysis showed that the wide range of heterosis varied with the traits and combinations, and GCA or specific combining ability (SCA) effects of factor 1-related traits except wall thickness of basal second internode (WTBSI) were positively and closely related to the heterosis of lodging resistance. Generally, the correlation coefficients of heterosis to GCA effects of sterile lines (GCAm) of factor 1-related traits are significantly higher than that to GCA of restorer lines (GCAr) and SCA, combined with the higher GCAm variance values of factor 1-related traits compared to GCAr, the GCAm of factor 1-related traits should be particularly considered when breeding hybrid combinations. The heritability analysis showed that the narrow-sense heritability of the diameter of basal second internode (DBSI) and the center of gravity height (TCGH) were obviously lower (

Because of the yield increase of 3.5–15% compared to conventional wheat, hybrid wheat is considered to be one of the main ways to greatly improve the wheat yield in the future. In this study, we performed a principal component analysis (PCA) on two-line hybrids wheat and their parents using the grain weight (GW), the length of spike (LS), the kernel number of spike (KSN), and spike number (SPN) as variables. The results showed that the variables could be classified into three main factors, the weight factor (factor 1), the quantity factor 1 (factor 2) and the quantity factor 2 (factor 3), which accounted for 37.1, 22.6 and 18.5%, respectively of the total variance in different agronomic variables, suggesting that the GW is an important indicator for evaluating hybrid combinations, and the grain weight of restorer line (RGW) could be used as a reference for parents selection. The hybrid combination with a higher score in factor 1 direction and larger mid-parent heterosis (MPH) of the GW and its parents were used to carry out the analysis of grain filling, 1-aminocylopropane-1-carboxylicacid (ACC) and polyamine synthesis related genes. The results suggested that the GW of superior grain was significantly higher than that of inferior grains in BS1453×JS1 (H) and its parents. Both grain types showed a weight of H between BS1453 (M) and JS1(R), and a larger MPH, which may be caused by their differences in the active filling stage and the grain filling rate. The ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase), granule bound starch synthase I (GBSSI), starch synthase III (SSS), and starch branching enzyme-I (SBE-I) expression levels of H were intermediated between M and R, which might be closely related to MPH formation of the GW. Compared with R and H, the GW of M at maturity was the lowest. The expression levels of spermidine synthase 2 (Spd2), ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) and S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (SAMDC) had significantly positive correlations with the grain filling rate (r=0.77*, 0.51*, 0.59*), suggesting their major roles in the grain filling and heterosis formation. These provide a theoretical basis for improving the GW of photo-thermo-sensitive male sterile lines (PTSMSL) by changing the endogenous polyamine synthesis in commercial applications.