Worldwide, dryland salinity is a major limitation to crop production. Breeding for salinity tolerance could be an effective way of improving yield and yield stability on saline-sodic soils of dryland agriculture. However, this requires a good understanding of inheritance of this quantitative trait.
Fructans (fructo-oligosaccharides) are prebiotics that are thought to selectively promote the growth of colonic bifidobacteria, thereby improving human gut health. Fructans are present in the grain of wheat, a staple food crop. In the research reported here, we aimed to detect and map loci affecting grain fructan concentration in wheat using a doubled-haploid population derived from a cross between a high-fructan breeding line, Berkut, and a low-fructan cultivar, Krichauff.
