Allelic impacts on pre-harvest sprouting resistance and favorable haplotypes in TaPHS1 of Chinese wheat accessions

Pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) influences yield and end-use quality of bread wheat. Developing varieties with PHS resistance is the most effective way to reduce this problem. In this study, a panel of 725 Chinese wheat accessions were evaluated for PHS resistance in three environments. There was abundant variation in PHS resistance and 63 accessions showing high resistance had germination rates of less than 10% across three experiments. The distribution of three causal single nucleotide polymorphisms in TaPHS1 at bases −222, +646, and +666 were assessed and frequencies were determined. Favorable alleles conferring PHS resistance were identified for each locus. Haplotype analysis showed that bases C, G, and A at each of the three loci comprised the best haplotype for PHS resistance, whereas TAT showed the highest sprouting rate. Accessions with the superior TaPHS1 haplotypes proved to be resistant to PHS providing a basis to develop varieties with PHS resistance through marker assisted breeding.