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Differential nitrogen-use efficiency in wheat parents of doubled-haploid mapping populations

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Abstract

Background and aims

The modern wheat cultivars have been selected for non-limiting nitrogen (N) input situations and therefore require large amounts of fertiliser N. The relatively high price of fossil fuels increases the cost of N fertilisers, putting pressure on wheat farmers. Doubled-haploid mapping populations can lead to identification of specific loci that might be useful in marker-assisted breeding for increased N-use efficiency.

Methods

Forty-one mostly Australian genotypes of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) (parents of existing doubled-haploid mapping populations) were grown to maturity in soil in a glasshouse. Two N treatments were tested: optimal (685 mg N pot−1) and low (171 mg N pot−1).

Results

Plant growth was significantly lower in most genotypes (with the exception of Mendos and Gamenya) at low compared with optimal N supply. Leaf-6 extension rate in the low-N treatment was on average 76 % of that in the optimal N treatment. Grain yield was significantly affected by the treatment x genotype interaction, ranging from 2.5 (genotype WAWHT2046) to 7.0 g per plant (genotype Mendos) under low N supply, and from 3.8 (genotype Wilgoyne) to 10.1 g per plant (genotype Lang) under optimal N supply. Based on responses to differential N supply, Mendos and Wilgoyne ranked as N-use efficient. In contrast, ten genotypes (Cadoux, Frame, Gamenya, Halberd, Janz, Lang, Neepawa, Spear, Sunco and Tasman) were ranked as N-use inefficient. The old genotype Gamenya was relatively N-use efficient, but had a poor response to N fertilisation. Amery and Janz responded similarly to Gamenya.

Conclusions

Even though genotypes used in the current study were bred mostly for yield, a range of differential responses to the low- and optimal-N treatments implies that efficient use of N at low supply and efficient response to N fertilisation might have been inadvertently selected for in some breeding programmes, suggesting a potential for breeding wheat cultivars with improved N-use efficiency.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support for this work was provided by the Grains Research and Development Corporation, Canberra. SV gratefully acknowledges Hungarian National Eötvös Fellowship programme.

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Author notes

  1. Al Imran Malik

    Present address: Centre for Plant Genetics and Breeding, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Environment, Faculty of Science, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Al Imran Malik, Szilvia Veres & Zed Rengel

  2. Institute of Crop Science, University of Debrecen, Böszörményi, Debrecen, 138, Hungary

    Szilvia Veres

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  1. Al Imran Malik
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Correspondence to Zed Rengel.

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Malik, A.I., Veres, S. & Rengel, Z. Differential nitrogen-use efficiency in wheat parents of doubled-haploid mapping populations. Plant Soil 408, 311–325 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-016-2943-9

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