Harnessing landrace diversity empowers wheat breeding.

Harnessing genetic diversity in major staple crops through the development of new breeding capabilities is essential to ensure food security. Here we examined the genetic and phenotypic diversity of the A. E.

Application of a library of near isogenic lines to understand context dependent expression of QTL for grain yield and adaptive traits in bread wheat.

Background: Previous quantitative trait loci (QTLs) studies using the Avalon × Cadenza doubled haploid (DH) population identified eleven QTLs determining plant height, heading date and grain yield. The objectives of this study were: (i) to provide insight into the effects of these QTLs using reciprocal multiple near isogenic lines (NILs) with each pair of alleles compared in both parental backgrounds (Avalon or Cadenza), (ii) quantifying epistasis by looking at the background effects and (iii) predict favourable allelic combinations to develop superior genotypes adapted to a target environment.

Results: To this aim, a library of 553 BC2 NILs and their recurrent parents were tested over two growing seasons (2012/2013 and 2013/2014).