QTL mapping of adult plant resistance for leaf rust in F2:3 wheat pedigrees derived from Zhou mai 22/Chinese spring

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) leaf rust [Puccinia triticina (Pt)] causes devastating yield losses globally. Conceivably, breeding and development of cultivars harboring adult plant resistance (APR) to leaf rust (LR) can be an effective way to manage wheat leaf rust. Particularly, mapping of major quantitative trait loci (QTLs) facilitate breeding of LR resistant cultivars. Here, we have mapped QTLs for APR to LR in wheat using wheat population including 215 F2:3 lines from a Zhoumai 22/Chinese Spring. Bulked segregation analyse (BSA) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) detection of wheat lines digged out the QTLs for APR to LR. Using Manager QTXb20 and Icimapping 3.2 software, some APR QTLs were mapped in Zhoumai 22/Chinese Spring wheat population. Three QTLs of APR to LR detected and designated QLr.zh-2BS, QLr.zh-4BL and QLr.zh-7DS) explained 12.58–13.58%, 7.02–20.22% and 6.73–21.30% of the phenotypic variation, respectively. QLr.zh-4BL and QLr.zh-7DS were derived from Chinese Spring wheat, whereas QLr.zh-2BS emanated from Zhoumai 22. QLr.zh-4BL and QLr.zh-7DS were mapped close to Lr12 and Lr34, respectively, revealling their close link to these loci, correspondingly. Overall, the QTLs related APR to LR, their flanking markers and associated APR genes identified in this study could be useful to genomic resources and marker-assisted select breeding of LR resistance in wheat.