Study of the Influence of the Glutamine Synthetase Gene on Agronomically Valuable Traits in Spring Bread wheat in Western Siberia

Abstract

The impact of the allelic state of the plastid glutamine synthase genes TaGS2-A1 and vernalization gene VRN-B1, along with the translocation 1RS.1BL, on economically valuable traits of spring common wheat in the Omsk oblast was investigated. The study focused on the spring wheat collection from the Omsk Agricultural Research Center. Through genotyping of the collection and statistical analysis of field data from 2022 and 2023, it was determined that the translocation 1RS.1BL and the TaGS2-A1a allele exert the most substantial positive influence on plant productivity and spike structure. The effect of the TaGS2-A1a allele was more pronounced in plants lacking the translocation 1RS.1BL: the difference in grain weight per spike between the TaGS2-A1a and TaGS2-A1b alleles ranged from 0.2 to 0.5 g (18 to 56%). Additionally, the influence of VRN-B1 on heading dates was more significant in plants without the translocation: those with the spring allele Vrn-B1 outpaced plants with the winter allele vrn-B1 by three days. Therefore, the presence of the translocation 1RS.1BL appears to mask the phenotypic expression of TaGS2-A1 and VRN-B1. Plants carrying the allelic combination TaGS2-A1a+1RS.1BL+vrn-B1 demonstrated greater productivity than other allelic combinations.