Barley yield formation under abiotic stress depends on the interplay between flowering time genes and environmental cues
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Mathias Wiegmann, Andreas Maurer, Anh Pham, Timothy March, Ayed Abdelat, William Thomas, Hazel Bull, Mohammed Shahid, Jason Eglinton, Michael Baum, Andrew Flavell, Mark Tester, Klaus Pillen. (25/4/2019). Barley yield formation under abiotic stress depends on the interplay between flowering time genes and environmental cues. Scientific Reports, 9.
Abstract
Since the dawn of agriculture, crop yield has always been impaired through abiotic
stresses. In a field trial across five locations worldwide, we tested three abiotic stresses,
nitrogen deficiency, drought and salinity, using HEB-YIELD, a selected subset of the wild
barley nested association mapping population HEB-25. We show that barley flowering
time genes Ppd-H1, Sdw1, Vrn-H1 and Vrn-H3 exert pleiotropic effects on plant
development and grain yield. Under field conditions, these effects are strongly influenced
by environmental cues like day length and temperature. For example, in Al-Karak, Jordan,
the day length-sensitive wild barley allele of Ppd-H1 was associated with an increase of
grain yield by up to 30% compared to the insensitive elite barley allele. The observed yield
increase is accompanied by pleiotropic effects of Ppd-H1 resulting in shorter life cycle,
extended grain filling period and increased grain size. Our study indicates that the
adequate timing of plant development is crucial to maximize yield formation under harsh
environmental conditions. We provide evidence that wild barley germplasm, introgressed
into elite barley cultivars, can be utilized to improve grain yield. The presented knowledge
may be transferred to related crop species like wheat and rice securing the rising global
food demand for cereals.
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Baum, Michael https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8248-6088