Plant Height Gene Molecular Markers

Wheat genetic improvement on drought resistance is an imporant project in wheat producion. Wheat drought resistance is a complicated quantitative trait which involves morphological, physiological biological and hereditory elements, etc. It is found that wheat height is an important trait closely relevant to drought resistance and seeds production. In this study, molecular mapping of the GA insensitive gene Rht3 is carried using the DH population of Jinmai 5 and Lumai 14 (caning Rht gene). The results are as follows: Lumai 14 carried a gene Rht3. It behaved as a dominant trait at seedlings and adult stages. Molecular mapping indicated that this gene was located on the chromosome 4B. Using 98 primers to amplify and screen the population, of them 43 primers have been found to be polymorphismic between the parents. However, 9 primers can amplified the polymorphism between the DNA pool of plant height. Our results showed that Bulked Segregant Analysis and rnicrosatellite primer screening of DH population identified three chromosome 4B microsatellite markers, WMS368, WMS495 and WMS5 13, only WMS368 closely linked to Rh13. The linkage distance between WMS368 and Rht3 was 15.3cM, WMS5 13, WMS495 and Rht3 was 18.1cM, 26.9cM respectively. The location of Rht3 gene and the acquisition of the molecular markers enriched the genetic map of this linked group. They also provided valuable information for our further research on the effects of this gene on wheat drought resistance and seeds production, and for marker-assistant wheat breeding.