Wild emmer wheat is an excellent reservoir of genetic variability that can be utilized to improve cultivated wheat to address the challenges of the expanding world population and climate change. Bearing this in mind, we have collected a panel of 263 wild emmer wheat (WEW) genotypes across the Fertile Crescent. The genotypes were grown in different locations and phenotyped for heading date. Genome-wide association mapping (GWAS) was carried out, and 16 SNPs were associated with the heading date. As the flowering time is controlled by photoperiod and vernalization, we sequenced the VRN1 gene, the most important of the vernalization response genes, to discover new alleles. Unlike most earlier attempts, which characterized known VRN1 alleles according to a partial promoter or intron sequences, we obtained full-length sequences of VRN-A1 and VRN-B1 genes in a panel of 95 wild emmer wheat from the Fertile Crescent and uncovered a significant sequence variation. Phylogenetic analysis of VRN-A1 and VRN-B1 haplotypes revealed their evolutionary relationships and geographic distribution in the Fertile Crescent region. The newly described alleles represent an attractive resource for durum and bread wheat improvement programs.

Council for Agricultural Research and Economics Research Centre for Cereal and Industrial Crops Foggia Italy

Council for Agricultural Research and Economics Research Centre for Genomics and Bioinformatics via San Protaso 302 Fiorenzuola d'Arda Italy

Department of Cell Biology and Genetics Faculty of Science Palacký University Olomouc Olomouc Czechia

Department of Field Crops Faculty of Agriculture University of Çukurova Adana Turkey

Department of Geoinformatics Faculty of Science Palacký University Olomouc Olomouc Czechia

Department of Plant Developmental Genetics Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences Brno ;Czechia

Institute of Experimental Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research Olomouc Czechia

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A new wild emmer wheat panel allows to map new loci associated with resistance to stem rust at seedling stage