Heterosis and Combining Ability for Major Yield Traits of a New Wheat Germplasm Shannong 0095 Derived from Thinopyrum intermedium

The wheatgrass, Thinopyrum intermedium (Host) Barkworth & DR Dewey, shows many beneficial characteristics, such as big spikes and high resistance to many diseases. To transfer the beneficial genes of this species, many wheat-Thinopyrum intermedium alien chromosome lines were developed. Of them, Shannong 0095 (SN0095), a disomic substitution, has long spikes and flag-leaves, and thus may be an important genetic resource for wheat yield improvement. In order to realize its heterosis and combining ability on major yield traits, a 7 × 7 complete diallel design was made according to Griffing’s Method-I. The results showed that heterosis for spike length (SPL), flag-leaf area (FLA), number of spikes per plant (NSP), number of spikelets per spike (NSL), kernels per spike (KPS), 1 000-kernel weight (TKW) and grain yield per plant (GYP) existed in all the crosses by SN0095, but heterobeltiosis occurred only for KPS, TKW, and GYP. The relative mid-parent heterosis (RMH) and relative high-parent heterosis (RHH) for GYP, which valued as high as 35.32 and 29.92% respectively, were the highest among all the traits mearsured. Though additive and non-additive gene effects and cytoplasmic effects (or cytoplasmic-nuclear interaction effects) were found in governing all the traits measured above, additive gene action played a predominant role. The results also showed that SN0095 was the best-general combiner for SPL and FLA, and high-general combiner for NSP amongst all the parents. Estimates of specific combining ability (SCA) showed that SN0095 could also make high-SCA combinations for GYP, such as SN0095 × Jimai 19 (JM19). SN0095 could be a unique and important parent in hybrid wheat breeding programs.