Improving the Wheat Genetic Diversity for End-Use Grain Quality by Chromatin Introgression from the Wheat Wild Relative Dasypyrum villosum.

Most wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) breeding programs rely on gene transfer from the wild and cultivated secondary gene pool (GP-2) for trait enhancement, but none has been successful in improving end-use grain quality using gene transfer from the wild GP-2. In this paper, the efficacy of prolamin subunits encoded by genes of Dasypyrum villosum (L.) Candargy (Dv) for the improvement of wheat end-use grain quality has been assessed by small- and large-scale analyses on wheat introgression lines (ILs) derived from Triticum aestivum cv. Chinese Spring x Dv hybridization. Prolamin genes from Dv and wheat are coexpressed in the ILs and differentially affect bread-making quality. The ascertained effects correlate weakly with the size of the introgressed Dv chromatin and are not confounded by the cryptic variation of the genetic background. Dasypyrum villosum chromatin, including genes at the GIu-V1 locus, significantly improves wheat bread-making quality, and chromatin from the short arm of chromosome 6V also improves protein and micro-nutrient content. These positive effects allow breeders to consider Dv as an important source of genes for grain quality improvement in wheat, also in conjunction with the introgression of Dv chromatin into wheat for enhancing expression of other traits such as disease resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]