In this study, the characteristics of wheat root development and their relationship with ears formation were investigated, and the correlation between root characteristics and panicle formation was clarified, so as to provide reference for coordinating root and panicle development. Three nitrogen application levels (0, 120, and 240 kg·hm^-2) were set up to study the dynamic changes of root morphological and quantitative traits in 0-40 cm soil layers, root vigor in 0-20 cm soil layers and tiller number of wheat at different growth stages using the big-ear type varieties Wunong 981, Zhengmai 618, and Pumai 116 and the multi-ear type varieties Xinong 529, Zhengmai 16, and Zhengmai 22 as materials. The results showed that the root dry weight density, root surface area density, root length density and nodal root per plant increased first and then decreased. The peak value was reached at anthesis stage, and the root vigor showed the same trend, but the peak value was at jointing stage. With the increase of the maximum number of nodal roots per plant, the root vigor increased by 68.56-109.60 μg·g^-1·h^-1 in 0-20 cm soil layer. The root dry weight density, root length density and root surface area density were increased by 48.67-170.14 g·m^-3, 0.78-1.04 m·m^-3 and 4.77-7.76 m·m^-3 in 20-40 cm soil layer, respectively. They were increased by 17.96-65.93 g·m^-3, 0.13-0.18 m·m^-3 and 0.96-1.55 m²·m^-3, respectively. The maximum number of tillers and panicle number of tillers were increased by 385.60×10⁴-816.34×10⁴·hm^-2 and 51.65×10⁴-84.65×10⁴·hm^-2, while the ears formation ratio decreased by 3.68-3.86 percentage points. The number of nodal roots per plant, root vigor, root dry weight density, root length density, root surface area density, maximum tiller number and the ear per unit soil area all increased with the increase of nitrogen application rate, but the ear-bearing tiller percentage decreased with the increase of nitrogen application rate, and the difference between treatments reached a significant level. The root vigor, root dry weight density, root length density and root surface area density of big-ear cultivars were higher than those of multi-ear cultivar, but the number of nodal roots, the maximum number of tillers and ear per unit soil area were lower than those of multi-ear cultivar, with significant differences. Correlation analysis showed that the number of nodal roots per plant, root vigor, root dry weight density, root length density and root surface area density were significantly positively correlated with the maximum number of tillers; the number of nodal roots per plant was significantly positively correlated with ears number per unit area, while the root vigor, root dry weight density, root length density and root surface area density were weakly positively or not correlated with ears number per unit area. The number of nodal roots per plant, root vigor, root dry weight density, root length density, and root surface area density had significant negative correlation with ears formation ratio. In conclusion, the increase of nodal root number per plant, root vigor and root morphological and quantitative traits is conducive to the increase of the maximum number of tillers and ears number per unit area, but is rednces the ear-bearing tiller percentage.

The development of wheat spike is a complex morphogenetic process, including the differentiation of growth cones, the differentiation of young spike organs, and the development of sex cells. This process is not only regulated by the network composed of multiple genes, but also influenced by external environmental factors (light, temperature, water, and nutrient supply, etc.), showing obvious plasticity. This review aims to systematically review and analyze the current domestic and foreign research results on the mechanism of wheat spike development, focusing on the gene regulation characteristics of wheat spike meristem differentiation and floret development, as well as the effects of abiotic stresses such as temperature, water, and hormones on wheat spike development, so as to explore the genetic improvement of wheat spike traits and the optimization of cultivation techniques.

In recent years, due to a series of issues such as global warming, delayed harvest of previous crops, and extreme weather conditions, wheat planting has been postponed and the growth period has been shortened, seriously affecting the high and stable yield of wheat and national food security. Late sowing has become the main limiting factor for wheat yield and quality improvement in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and even the Huang-Huai wheat region in China. This article summarizes the effect of late sowing on the growth and development of wheat, as well as the breeding of late sowing tolerant wheat. It is believed that in the future, research on late sowing tolerant wheat should mainly be carried out from the three aspects: physiological and genetic mechanisms, genetic improvement, and supporting cultivation techniques for late sowing wheat, in order to solve the problem of wheat late sowing and yield reduction.

The variation characteristics of winter wheat quality among different types and different areas can be a hint to guide the study on high quality planting and zoning of different wheat varieties. Based on the quality data of winter wheat in five main wheat producing provinces from 2006 to 2015, we used correlation analysis to explore the spatial distribution characteristics of 10 quality traits and the relationship between wheat quality and longitude and latitude. The results showed that the sedimentation value, wet gluten content, stability time, maximum tensile resistance, stretch area and extensibility of strong gluten and medium-strong gluten wheat were higher in Henan, Hebei or Shandong, while those of medium gluten and weak gluten wheat were higher in Anhui or Jiangsu. Most quality indicators of the four types of gluten wheat were significantly correlated with longitude and latitude (P<0.05), with test weight and protein content significantly positively correlated with latitude (P<0.05) and significantly negatively correlated with longitude (P<0.01). With increasing latitude, the wet gluten content, extensibility and score of strong gluten and medium-strong gluten wheat increased significantly, while the sedimentation value, maximum tensile resistance and stretch area of medium gluten and weak gluten wheat decreased significantly. With the increase of longitude, the wet gluten content, water absorption, stability time, maximum tensile resistance, stretch area, extensibility and score of strong gluten wheat were significantly decreased, while the sedimentation value, maximum tensile resistance and stretch area of medium-strong gluten, medium gluten and weak gluten wheat were significantly increased. Therefore, it is suitable to plant strong gluten and medium-strong gluten wheat in Hebei, Henan and Shandong, and medium gluten or weak gluten wheat in Anhui and Jiangsu.

In order to clarify the high and stable capacity of yield, and quality stability of semi-winter wheat varieties (lines) with high yield potential in Anhui Province, a randomized block design was adopted in this study from 2022 to 2023 in six test sites: Taihe, Sixian, Suixi, Wuyang, Yingshang, and Yingzhou. The test materials were the varieties (lines) with significantly higher yield than the control varieties in the regional and production experiments in Anhui Province from 2018 to 2022, and the yield, yield components, and quality of the tested materials were analyzed. The results showed that location, variety (line) and their interaction effects had a significant impact on yield, yield components (except spike number) and quality, the location and its interaction effect with varieties were the main sources of variation of yield and yield components. The yield and spike in Taihe were significantly higher than those in other sites, reaching 10 210 kg·hm^-2 and 7.74×10⁶ per hm², respectively, and the spike weight in Yingzhou was the highest (1.52 g). Among the tested materials, Annong 188 and Anke 1803 had high yield, with average yield of 9 572 kg·hm^-2 and 9 407 kg·hm^-2. Anke 1803 and Wanke 1838 exhibited higher yield stability, and Anong 188 had the widest adaptation range. When the yield was lower than 10 500 kg·hm^-2, it was significantly positively correlated with the number of spikes and spike weight, as yield increased further, the higher yield was mainly attributed to the increase of spike number. The stable yield of wheat mainly depended on the stability of panicle grains. Location was a major factor for quality variation. The quality of wheat in Yingshang was significantly higher than that in other locations, and the lowest in Sixian. Wansu 21 showed the best quality, and Anke 1803 showed the best quality stability. In summary, the synergy of high yield, stable yield and high quality of semi-winter wheat varieties (lines) in Anhui Province was weak, and targeted cultivation technologies should be formulated according to local ecological conditions in the future to achieve the synergistic improvement of wheat yield, quality and stability.

In order to clarify the utilization of stripe rust resistance level and resistance genes of 90 wheat varieties (lines) in Yili River Valley, stripe rust physiological races CYR23, CYR29, CYR31, CYR32, CYR33 and CYR34 were used to identify stripe rust resistance in these wheat materials at seedling stage, combined with seven previously reported molecular markers closely linked to stripe rust resistance genes Yr5, Yr9, Yr10, Yr15, Yr18, Yr26, and Yr80 for detecting the genotype of the test materials. The results showed that 27 materials were resistant to stripe rust at seedling stage, 19 of which were immune or near-immune. There were 11, 7, 8, 8, 1, and 34 materials carrying resistance genes Yr9, Yr10, Yr15, Yr18, Yr26, and Yr80, respectively. Eleven materials carry two resistance genes, and only one material carries 3 resistance genes. Yr5 was not detected from the test materials. All the above resistance genes were not detected in 21 germplasms, 5 of which showed high resistance to stripe rust at seedling stage. The selected varieties (lines)(Xindong 21, Ningchun 26, Kuidong 4, Kuihua 1, 2016-138-2 and 2016-119-12) aggregated multiple resistance genes and had great resistance at seedling stage, which have great application potential in wheat rust resistance breeding and safe production.

Agropyron is an important relative plant for genetic improvement of stress resistance in wheat. The development of molecular markers is of great significance to accelerate the efficiency of genetic breeding and innovative utilization of wheatgrass. In this study, based on transcriptome sequencing technology, the young roots, stems, leaves, spikes at grain-filling stage, and seeds of two wheatgrass accessions have been bioinformatics analyzed, and highly polymorphic EST-SSR markers were developed and verified. The results showed that a total of 23 491 793 high-quality sequences were obtained, with a base length of 7.03 Gb, the GC content of 56.44%, and the Q30 content of 93.04%. 33 993 Unigenes were obtained, with a total length of 29 309 958 bp. A total of 25 614 Unigene annotations were obtained by comparing Unigene with nine functional databases, including 24 557 annotations in the Nr database and 66 193 annotations in the GO database, which were divided into 3 categories and 42 subcategories according to their functions. A total of 14 412 Unigene pathways were annotated into 136 metabolic pathways in the KEGG database. A total of 11 321 Unigenes were annotated in the KOG database, categorized into 25 functional categories. A total of 7 288 CDSs with 2 443 SSR sites greater than 100 bp were predicted, of which 1 439 were tribase repeats, accounting for 58.90% of the total. A total of 42 pairs of primers with EST-SSR polymorphisms were obtained, and 10 pairs were randomly selected for validation using 30 F₂ individuals. The average polymorphism ratio was 48.33%. The results indicated that the EST-SSR primers, which were developed in large quantities by RNA-seq technology, can be efficiently applied to the development of markers related to yield and quality traits of tetraploid wheatgrass, the construction of excellent new germplasm fingerprints, and precise molecular marker-assisted breeding.

The cultivation of wheat materials with high nitrogen use efficiency is an effective way to improve nitrogen use efficiency and reduce production cost. SPX gene family plays a key regulatory role in plant response to nitrogen and stress. In this experiment, 20 different varieties of wheat were used as test materials, and hydroponics experiments were carried out at seedling stage under three nitrogen concentration treatments: low nitrogen (0.05 mmol·L^-1), normal nitrogen (5 mmol·L^-1) and high nitrogen (25 mmol·L^-1). The morphological and physiological indices of wheat at seedling stage were determined under different nitrogen concentration treatments. Wheat varieties with high nitrogen use efficiency and low nitrogen use efficiency were selected by comprehensive evaluation, and the relative expression of TaSPX1 gene in wheat with different nitrogen use efficiency was analyzed. The results showed that, compared with normal nitrogen treatment, the maximum root length, root dry weight and root shoot ratio of different wheat varieties largely increased under low nitrogen treatment. Six indices, including plant height, above ground dry weight, and chlorophyll content, all decreased, among which chlorophyll content, plant height and above ground dry weight decreased significantly. The variation coefficients of each index ranged from 3.16% to 38.71%. Under high nitrogen treatment, the maximum root length, plant height, and root dry weight of different wheat varieties decreased, and the chlorophyll content, maximum root length, and root dry weight decreased significantly. Root surface area, root volume, and soluble sugar all increased, among which root volume increased the most. Coefficients of variation of all indices ranged from 2.51% to 36.53%. The principal component analysis of 13 indicators showed that the contribution rates of the three principal components extracted under low nitrogen treatment were 54%, 26%, and 12%, respectively, and the cumulative contribution rate was 91%. The contribution rates of the three principal components extracted under high nitrogen treatment were 64%, 16%, and 9%, respectively, and the cumulative contribution rate reached 88%. Using the membership function value to make comprehensive evaluation and cluster analysis, the tested materials were divided into four categories: double efficient type, low nitrogen efficient type, high nitrogen efficient type, and double inefficient type. qRT-PCR analysis showed that under low nitrogen stress, the relative expression of TaSPX1 increased in double efficient and low efficient materials, while the relative expression of TaSPX1 in high efficient and double inefficient materials increased first and then decreased. Under high nitrogen stress, the relative expression of TaSPX1 gene decreased in the double and high nitrogen efficient materials, while the relative expression of TaSPX1 gene in the low nitrogen efficient materials and double low efficiency materials increased with the increase of treatment time.

Starch branching enzyme is one of the key enzymes involved in plant starch biosynthesis and metabolism. In order to explore the function of starch branching enzyme in wild emmer wheat, nine starch branching enzyme genes (TdSBEs) were identified based on the genome data of wild emmer wheat by bioinformatics methods, and their physical and chemical properties, phylogeny, cis-acting elements, collinearity, and expression pattern were analyzed. The results showed that the molecular weight of the protein for the nine TdSBEs was between 65 518.04 and 151 934.4 Da, with isoelectric point ranging from 5.37 to 6.64. The subcellular localization for all TdSBEs were in the chloroplast. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the nine TdSBEs were classified into 3 subfamilies. Majority of the gene within the same subfamily were conserved in gene structure and motif, except for TdSBE1-7A1. The TdSBEs contained the cis-elements related to plant hormones, plant growth and development, and abiotic stress response. In addition, endosperm and root specific-expression elements were also found in TdSBE2s. Chromosomal localization and collinearity analysis showed that the members of the TdSBEs were located in the group-2 and-7 homologous chromosomes, and a pair of tandem replication genes were identified. The TdSBEs were highly expressed in spike and grain, showing spatial-temporally specific expression. The above results indicate that there are multiple TdSBEs genes in wild emmer wheat, which are mainly expressed in spikes and grains. There are a large number of cis-acting elements related to plant growth and development, plant hormones, and stress response in the promoter region.

The heat shock transcription factor (HSF) family is closely associated with plant growth, development and stress responses. To explore the function of the barley HSF gene family, this study used bioinformatics methods to identify HvHSF genes at the whole genome level and analyze the physicochemical properties, subcellular localization, evolutionary relationships, and collinearity relationships of the HvHSF proteins, as well as the gene structure, promoter cis-acting elements, and protein interaction networks of HvHSF. The results showed that the molecular weight of 29 HvHSF proteins ranges from 10.24 kDa to 56.59 kDa, classified as relatively unstable hydrophilic proteins, with a predicted localization in the nucleus. Evolutionary analysis showed that barley HvHSF genes can be divided into A, B and C groups and are more closely related to rice. Collinearity analysis revealed that HvHSF5d and HvHSF7b are collinear gene pairs. Domain and gene structure analyses revealed that closely related HvHSF genes have similar domain structures and gene structures. Promoter cis-acting element analysis showed that the HvHSF promoter contains various cis-acting elements related to growth and development, as well as stress responses. Protein interaction network predictions indicated that HvHSF may be involved in plant stress response regulation and H₂O₂ scavenging. Through analysis of the barley stress transcriptome combined with qRT-PCR validation, it was found that HvHSF exhibited differential expression under salt and alkali stresses. The expression levels of HvHSF1a, HvHSF1b, HvHSF2a, HvHSF3c and HvHSF5b were increased under salt and alkali stresses. However, HvHSF6 performed increased expression level under salt stress, but decreased expression level under alkali stress. This study confirmed that the HSF gene family responds to salt and alkali stresses and may contribute to the regulation of salt-alkali tolerance.