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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Cereal Crops Improvement Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #432856
Research Project: Improvement of Disease and Pest Resistance in Barley, Durum, Oat, and Wheat Using Genetics and Genomics

Location: Cereal Crops Improvement Research

Title: Identification of genetic factors governing drought tolerance in wild and domesticated tetraploid wheat

Author
item GUDI, SANTOSH - North Dakota State University
item SINGH, JATINDER - North Dakota State University
item Faris, Justin
item GILL, UPINDER - North Dakota State University
item Gupta, Rajeev

Submitted to: BMC Genomics
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/21/2026
Publication Date: 8/1/2026
Citation: Gudi, S., Singh, J., Faris, J.D., Gill, U., Gupta, R. 2026. Identification of genetic factors governing drought tolerance in wild and domesticated tetraploid wheat. BMC Genomics. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-026-13221-9.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-026-13221-9

Interpretive Summary: Durum wheat is an economically important crop because of its unique characteristics preferred for making pasta and other semolina-based products. Durum wheat production is severely affected by various biotic and abiotic stresses including drought, heat, salinity, etc. Drought stress affects agronomic, morpho-physiological, molecular, and biochemical traits at various developmental stages of wheat. In this study, we screened diverse accessions of cultivated and wild tetraploid wheat under drought stress to identify drought tolerant genotypes. Chromosome substitution lines and recombinant inbred lines developed using drought tolerant and sensitive parents were utilized to map the genomic regions associated with drought stress tolerance. The drought tolerant genotypes and the genomic regions identified in this study may serve as valuable resources for developing drought resilient durum wheat cultivars.

Technical Abstract: Germplasm characterization and gene identification are essential first steps in developing drought-resilient cultivars. In this study, evaluation of 20 diverse tetraploid wheat accessions representing cultivated and wild species under severe drought stress using an in-house protocol identified four extremely tolerant genotypes including the CIMMYT-bred durum (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum) variety Altar 84, the two wild emmer (T. turgidum ssp. dicoccoides) accessions PI 478742 and PI 481521, and the cultivated emmer (T. turgidum ssp. dicoccum) accession PI 41025. Chromosome substitution lines involving individual pairs of chromosomes from PI 478742 and PI 481521 substituted for homologous pairs of chromosomes in drought sensitive durum variety Langdon 16 were evaluated to identify chromosome(s) carrying drought tolerance loci. The 11 substitution lines available for PI 478742 (lacking chromosomes 2A, 3A, and 3B) were all sensitive to drought. All 14 possible substitution lines were available for PI 481521, and among these, 13 were drought sensitive like Langdon 16. Substitution line involving chromosome 3A (LDN-521-3A) showed extreme drought tolerance comparable to PI 481521. Since 3A substitution line for PI 478742 was unavailable, it’s tolerance may also conferred by a locus on chromosome 3A. QTL mapping using 138 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived by crossing Altar 84 and Langdon 16 identified a major QTL on the short arm of chromosome 4B explaining 26% of phenotypic variation. This QTL spans large physical region of approximately 265.52 Mb in the Svevo RefSeq v1.0 genome. Sequence analysis of TRITD4Bv1G024340, an orthologue of drought tolerance gene (TaWD40-4B.1) cloned from same genomic region in hexaploid wheat, suggested that the Altar 84 QTL is novel and governed by a different gene. Drought tolerant lines and the genomic regions identified in this study serve as valuable resources for developing drought-resilient durum wheat varieties.