Abstract
Drought tolerance of the wheat cultivar Bobwhite was previously enhanced by transformation with a construct containing the wheat DREB3 gene driven by the stress-inducible maize Rab17 promoter. Progeny of a single T2 transgenic line were used as pollinators in crosses with four elite bread wheat cultivars from Western Australia: Bonnie Rock, IGW-2971, Magenta and Wyalkatchem, with the aim of evaluating transgene performance in different genetic backgrounds. The selected pollinator line, BW8-9-10-3, contained multiple transgene copies, had significantly improved drought tolerance compared with wild-type plants and showed no growth and development penalties or abnormalities. A single hybrid plant was selected from each cross-combination for three rounds of backcrossing with the corresponding maternal wheat cultivar. The transgene was detected in all four F1BC3 combinations, but stress-inducible transgene expression was found in only three of the four combinations. Under well-watered conditions, the phenotypes and grain yield components of the F2BC3 transgene-expressing lines were similar to those of corresponding recurrent parents and null-segregants. Under severe drought conditions, the backcross lines demonstrated 12-18% higher survival rates than the corresponding control plants. Two from four F3BC3 transgenic lines showed significantly higher yield (18.9% and 21.5%) than control plants under limited water conditions. There was no induction of transgene expression under cold stress, and therefore, no improvement of frost tolerance observed in the progenies of drought-tolerant F3BC3 lines.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 313-322 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY JOURNAL |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2016 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
All Plant Biotechnology Journal articles will be published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which allows users to copy, distribute and transmit an article, adapt the article and make commercial use of the article. The CC BY license permits commercial and non-commercial re-use of an open access article, as long as the author is properly attributed. Copyright on any research article published by a Wiley Open Access journal is retained by the author(s).Keywords
- Backcrossing
- DREB transcription factor
- Drought
- Frost
- Hybrids
- Transgenic wheat