Zn and Fe Concentration Variations of Grain and Flag Leaf and the
Relationship with NAM-G1 Gene in Triticum timopheevii (Zhuk.) Zhuk. ssp.
timopheevii
Hu1, 2**, J. Liu1**, L. Zhang3, B.H. Wu1*, J.L. Hu1, D.C. Liu1 and Y.L. Zheng1
1 Triticeae Research Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Wenjiang 611130, Chengdu, Sichuan, P. R. China
2 Center of Wheat Research, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang 453003, Henan, P. R. China
3 Department of Biology and Science, Sichuan Agricultural University, 625014 Ya’an, Sichuan, P. R. China
* Corresponding author; E-mail: wubihua2005@126.com; Phone/Fax: +86 2882650350
** An equal contribution to this article.
Cereal Research Communications 45(3), pp. 421–431 (2017), DOI: 10.1556/0806.45.2017.022
First published online June 08, 2017
Grains of 12 accessions of Triticum timopheevii (Zhuk.) Zhuk. ssp. timopheevii (AAGG,2n = 4x = 28) and one bread wheat cultivar Chinese Spring (CS)
and one durum wheat cultivar Langdon (LDN) grown across two years were
analyzed for grain iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) concentrations. All the 12
tested T. timopheevii ssp. timopheevii genotypes
showed significantly higher concentration of grain Fe and Zn than CS and
LDN. Aboundant genetic variability of both the Fe and Zn concentrations
was observed among the T. timopheevii ssp. timopheevii accessions, averagely varied from 47.06 to 90.26 mg kg–1 and from 30.05
to 65.91 mg kg–1, respectively. Their grain Fe and Zn concentrations
between years exhibited a significantly positive correlation with the
correlation coefficients r = 0.895 and r = 0.891, respectively,
indicating the highly genetic stability. Flag leaf possessed twice or
three times higher concentrations for both Fe and Zn than grain, and a
significantly high positive correlation appeared between the two organs
with r = 0.648 for Fe and r = 0.957 for Zn concentrations, respectively,
suggesting flag leaves might be indirectly used for evaluating grain Zn
and Fe contents. Significant correlations occurred between grain Fe and
Zn concentrations, and between grain Zn concentration and the two
agronomic traits of plant height and number of spikelets per spike. Both
the concentrations were not related to seed size or weight as well
as NAM-G1 gene, implying the higher grain Fe and Zn concentrations of T. timopheevii ssp. timopheevii species
are not ascribed to concentration effects of seed and the genetic
control of NAM-G1 gene. There might be some other biological factors
impacting the grain’s Zn and Fe concentrations. These results indicated T. timopheevii ssp. timopheevii species
might be a promising genetic resource with high Fe and Zn
concentrations for the biofortification of current wheat cultivars.
Keywords: T. timopheevii ssp. timopheevii, iron, zinc, NAM-G1 gene, biofortification