Inheritance and QTL analysis of four falling number using recombinant inbred lines derived from strong gluten wheat 'Gaocheng 8901' and waxy wheat 'Nuomai 1'

Flour falling number (FN) is an important trait because not only related with pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) tolerance but also with processing quality. Waxy wheat usually has low flour falling number (FN) without severe pre-harvest sprouting (PHS). To identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with flour FN, a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from two Chinese wheat, strong gluten wheat 'Gaocheng 8901' and waxy wheat 'Nuomai 1', was employed to evaluate the genetic variation and to detect QTLs based on DarT and SSR markers under three environments. It was shown that the higher variation existed in the RIL for FN. Ten additive QTLs were identified, of which four QTLs (QFn.sdau-4A.1, QFn.sdau-4A.2, QFn.sdau-7A and QFn.sdau-7D2.1) located on chromosome 4A, 7A and 7D, respectively, showed stable in different environments around the Wx genes loci for FN. In total, twenty three epistatic QTLs were screened, in which three epistatic QTLs (QFn.sdau-4A.1/ QFn.sdau-7A, QFn.sdau-4A.1/QFn.sdau-7D2.1 and QFn.sdau-7A/QFn.sday-7D2.1) showed stable in different environments. Significant effects were found in almost all QTLs detected. We could use the molecular markers linked with the Wx loci to accelerate the development of cultivars with high flour FN and low PHS in marker-assisted selection.