QTL analysis of yield and yield related traits in bread wheat under salt-stress conditions

In order to identify yield and yield component QTLs under control and salt-stress conditions, a population of 254 recombinant inbred lines (RILs), derived from a cross between two bread wheat cultivars, (Roshan / Sabalan), was assessed. Parents and their 254 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) were evaluated in an alpha-lattice design with two replications in two control and saline environments of Yazd in 2011-2012 cropping season. Yield and yield-related traits were evaluated at harvest time. The genotyping was carried out using SSR and DArT markers. A, B and D genomes were covered by 411.8, 620.4 and 67.5 cM, respectively. Also, a total of 48 QTLs were detected on 11 chromosomes for grain yield, biological yield, harvest index, thousand-kernel weight, grain number per spike, spike weight and spikelet number per spike. Roshan (salt tolerance) alleles were associated with an increase yield under saline conditions. SSR markers including gwm146, gwm577, gwm249 (on chromosomes 2A and 7B) were tightly associated with different QTLs. The major effect QTLs were located on chromosomes 1A and 7B for grain yield, harvest index and spike weight, which were explained 10.2%, 12.98% and 29 % of the total phenotypic variance, respectively. These QTLs and markers could be suitable for marker-assisted selection and gene stacking techniques. Moreover, co-located QTLs were detected on chromosome 2B for evaluated traits.