Resistance of QYm.nau-2D to wheat yellow mosaic virus was derived from an alien introgression into common wheat

Key message The QYm.nau-2D locus conferring wheat yellow mosaic virus resistance is an exotic introgression and we developed 11 diagnostic markers tightly linked to QYm.nau-2D. Abstract Wheat yellow mosaic virus (WYMV) is a serious disease of winter wheat in China. Breeding resistant varieties is the most effective strategy for WYMV control. A WYMV resistant locus QYm.nau-2D on the chromosome arm 2DL has been repeatedly reported but the mapped region is large. In the present study, we screened recombinants using a biparental population and mapped QYm.nau-2D into an 18.8 Mb physical interval. By genome-wide association studies of 372 wheat varieties for WYMV resistance in four environments, we narrowed down QYm.nau-2D into a 16.4 Mb interval. Haplotype analysis indicated QYm.nau-2D were present as six different states due to recombination during hybridization breeding. QYm.nau-2D was finally mapped into a linkage block of 11.2 Mb. Chromosome painting using 2D specific probes and collinearity analysis among the published sequences corresponding to QYm.nau-2D region indicated the block was an exotic introgression. The Illumina-sequenced reads of four diploid Aegilops species were mapped to the sequence of Fielder, a variety having the introgression. The mapping reads were significantly increased at the putative introgression regions of Fielder. Ae. uniaristata (NN) had the highest mapping reads, suggesting that QYm.nau-2D was possibly an introgression from genome N. We investigated the agronomic performances of different haplotypes and observed no linkage drag of the alien introgression for the 15 tested traits. For marker-assisted selection of QYm.nau-2D , we developed 11 diagnostic markers tightly linked to the locus. This research provided a case study of an exotic introgression, which has been utilized in wheat improvement for WYMV resistance.