Maternal effects are ubiquitous in nature and have been demonstrated in a wide array of traits and taxa. In many species, the genotype of the mother is a major determinant of the phenotype of her offspring. In plants, less is known about the levels of sensitivity to stresses-mediated maternal effects. We generated 12 reciprocal crossed F₂ lines from two salt-tolerant and two salt-sensitive wheat cultivars to distinguish the influence of the maternal effect from the influence of the offspring genome on the expression of offspring traits under high-salinity (250 mM NaCl). SSR markers screening of the reciprocal hybrid genotypes and parents’ nuclear genomes and Sanger sequencing of low-, medium-, and high-dominant markers revealed insignificant changes in the nuclear genome among offspring and parents. However, interestingly, the offspring with salt-tolerant mothers showed higher salt tolerance than those with salt-sensitive mothers. This study shed light on still unresolved fundamental questions regarding the potential of maternal genetic effects contribute to stress tolerance and the non-completely control by nuclear genetic factors, which may open future research avenues as a source of a quality shift in subsequent offspring that any genetic analysis of tolerance traits must consider.

母体效应在自然界中无处不在，并已在广泛的性状和分类群中得到证明。在许多物种中，母亲的基因型是其后代表型的主要决定因素。在植物中，对压力介导的母体效应的敏感性水平知之甚少。我们生成了 12 个相互交叉的 F ₂来自两个耐盐和两个盐敏感小麦品种的品系，以区分母体效应的影响和后代基因组对高盐度（250 mM NaCl）下后代性状表达的影响。互惠杂种基因型和亲本核基因组的 SSR 标记筛选以及低、中和高显性标记的 Sanger 测序揭示了后代和亲本核基因组的微不足道变化。然而，有趣的是，母亲耐盐的后代比盐敏感母亲的后代表现出更高的耐盐性。这项研究揭示了尚未解决的基本问题，即母体遗传效应可能导致压力耐受性和核遗传因素的非完全控制，