Stem traits promote wheat climate-resilience.

Introduction: Wheat grain filling processes under post-anthesis stress scenarios depend mainly on stem traits and remobilization of stem water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC).

Methods: A diverse panel of advanced semi-dwarf spring wheat lines, representing a natural variation in stem traits (WSC content, stem diameter, peduncle length, and stem wall width), was used to identify specific traits that reliably reflect the relationship between WSC and grain yield. The panel was phenotyped under various environmental conditions: well-watered, water-limited, and heat stress in Mexico, and terminal-drought in Israel.

Climate change impacts on crop breeding: Targeting interacting biotic and abiotic stresses for wheat improvement.

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) as a staple crop is closely interwoven into the development of modern society. Its influence on culture and economic development is global.

On-farm assessment of yield and quality traits in durum wheat.

Background: Durum wheat is key source of calories and nutrients for many regions of the world. Demand for it is predicted to increase. Further efforts are therefore needed to develop new cultivars adapted to different future scenarios.

Impact of different on-farm management practices on bread wheat quality: a case study in the Yaqui Valley.

Background: Continuous development of new wheat varieties is necessary to satisfy the demands of farmers, industry, and consumers. The evaluation of candidate genotypes for commercial release under different on-farm conditions is a strategy that has been strongly recommended to assess the performance and stability of new cultivars in heterogeneous environments and under different farming systems. The main objectives of this study were to evaluate the grain yield and quality performance of ten different genotypes across six contrasting farmers' field conditions with different irrigation and nitrogen fertilization levels, and to develop suggestions to aid breeding programs and farmers to use resources more efficiently.

Exotic alleles contribute to heat tolerance in wheat under field conditions.

Global warming poses a major threat to food security and necessitates the development of crop varieties that are resilient to future climatic instability. By evaluating 149 spring wheat lines in the field under yield potential and heat stressed conditions, we demonstrate how strategic integration of exotic material significantly increases yield under heat stress compared to elite lines, with no significant yield penalty under favourable conditions. Genetic analyses reveal three exotic-derived genetic loci underlying this heat tolerance which together increase yield by over 50% and reduce canopy temperature by approximately 2 °C.

Potential of rice landraces with strong culms as genetic resources for improving lodging resistance against super typhoons.

It is generally believed that rice landraces with long culms are susceptible to lodging, and have not been utilized for breeding to improve lodging resistance. However, little is known about the structural culm strength of landraces and their beneficial genetic loci. Therefore, in this study, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were performed using a rice population panel including Japanese rice landraces to identify beneficial loci associated with strong culms.

Uncovering candidate genes involved in photosynthetic capacity using unexplored genetic variation in Spring Wheat.

To feed an ever-increasing population we must leverage advances in genomics and phenotyping to harness the variation in wheat breeding populations for traits like photosynthetic capacity which remains unoptimized. Here we survey a diverse set of wheat germplasm containing elite, introgression and synthetic derivative lines uncovering previously uncharacterized variation. We demonstrate how strategic integration of exotic material alleviates the D genome genetic bottleneck in wheat, increasing SNP rate by 62% largely due to Ae.

Breeder friendly phenotyping.

The word phenotyping can nowadays invoke visions of a drone or phenocart moving swiftly across research plots collecting high-resolution data sets on a wide array of traits. This has been made possible by recent advances in sensor technology and data processing. Nonetheless, more comprehensive often destructive phenotyping still has much to offer in breeding as well as research.

Elucidating the genetic basis of biomass accumulation and radiation use efficiency in spring wheat and its role in yield potential.

One of the major challenges for plant scientists is increasing wheat (Triticum aestivum) yield potential (YP). A significant bottleneck for increasing YP is achieving increased biomass through optimization of radiation use efficiency (RUE) along the crop cycle. Exotic material such as landraces and synthetic wheat has been incorporated into breeding programmes in an attempt to alleviate this; however, their contribution to YP is still unclear.