Distribution of photoperiod-insensitive allele Ppd-Ala and its effect on heading time in Japanese wheat cultivars.

The Ppd-Al genotype of 240 Japanese wheat cultivars and 40 foreign cultivars was determined using a PCR-based method. Among Japanese cultivars, only 12 cultivars, all of which were Hokkaido winter wheat, car-ried the Ppd-Ala allele, while this allele was not found in Hokkaido spring wheat cultivars or Tohoku-Kyushu cultivars. Cultivars with a photoperiod-insensitive allele headed 6.9-9.8 days earlier in Kanto and 2.5 days earlier in Hokkaido than photoperiod-sensitive cultivars. The lower effect of photoperiod-insensitive alleles observed in Hokkaido could be due to the longer day-length at the spike formation stage compared with that in Kanto. Pedigree analysis showed that 'Purple Straw' and 'Tohoku 118' were donors of Ppd-Ala and Ppd-Dla in Hokkaido wheat cultivars, respectively. Wheat cultivars recently developed in Hokkaido carry photoperiod-insensitive alleles at a high frequency. For efficient utilization of Ppd-1 alleles in the Hokkaido wheat-breeding program, the effect of Ppd-1 on growth pattern and grain yield should be investi-gated. Ppd-Ala may be useful as a unique gene source for fine tuning the heading time in the Tohoku-Kyushu region since the effect of Ppd-Ala on photoperiod insensitivity appears to differ from the effect of Ppd-Bla and Ppd-Dla. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]