Genetic systems regulating flowering response in wheat

Genetic systems regulating bread wheat ontogenesis have been studied at Ukraine's Plant Breeding and Genetics Institute, for more than two decades. The influence of Vrn genes is the most obvious; dominant alleles of Vrn genes inhibit the vernalisation requirement. The Vrn genotypes of more than 1000 cultivars were determined and the peculiarities of gene geography were shown. Dominant Vrn1 or Vrn2 seemed to be replaced by Vrn3 in regions closer to the equator. In the developed sets of near-isogenic (congenic) lines, the value of different genes was characterised for certain environments (favourable – phytotron, natural – early or late drought) based on their effects. Methods of Vrn gene manipulation were elaborated, including methods for winter genotype selection from spring x spring crosses. The possibility of alien homoeologous Vrn loci introgression was shown. In the introgressed lines, the new genes were identified and found to be nonallelic to known Vrn genes in wheat. In studying congenic lines for three Ppd genes, differences were observed in duration and intensity of photoperiodic response, vernalisation requirement and effects on agronomic traits. For typical winter wheats, two loci were identified that influenced the duration of the vernalisation requirement. One system, controlling intrinsic earliness, might be responsible for the differences in reaction to light intensity, as selection of earlier genotypes is supposed to be more effective at lower light intensity. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.