Crop Wild Relatives Crosses: Multi-Location Assessment in Durum Wheat, Barley, and Lentil

Noureddine El Haddad,Abderrazek Jilal,Amadou Tidiane Sall,Shiv Kumar,Andrea Visioni,Rola El Amil,Wasihun Lagesse,Filippo M Bassi,Miguel Sanchez-Garcia

doi:10.3390/agronomy11112283

Abstract

Crop wild relatives (CWR) are a good source of useful alleles for climate change adaptation. Here, 19 durum wheat, 24 barley, and 24 lentil elites incorporating CWR in their pedigrees were yield tested against commercial checks across 19 environments located in Morocco, Ethiopia, Lebanon, and Senegal. For each crop, the combined analysis of variance showed that genotype (G), environment (E), and genotype x environment (G×E) effects were significant for most of the traits. A selection index combining yield potential (G) and yield stability (G×E) was used to identify six CWR-derived elites for each crop matching or superior to the best check. A regression analysis using a climate matrix revealed that grain yield was mostly influenced by the maximum daily temperature and soil moisture level during the growing stages. These climatic factors were used to define five clusters (i.e., E1 to E5) of mega-environments. The CWR-derived elites significantly outperformed the checks in E1, E2, and E4 for durum wheat, and in E2 for both barley and lentil. The germplasm was also assessed for several food transformation characteristics. For durum wheat, one accession (Zeina) originating from T. araraticum was significantly superior in mixograph score to the best check, and three accessions originating from T. araraticum and T. urartu were superior for Zn concentration. For barley, 21 accessions originating from H. spontaneum were superior to the checks for protein content, six for Zn content, and eight for β-glucan. For lentil, ten accessions originating from Lens orientalis were superior to the check for protein content, five for Zn, and ten for Fe concentration. Hence, the results presented here strongly support the use of CWR in breeding programs of these three dryland crops, both for adaptation to climatic stresses and for value addition for food transformation.

Highlights

Durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.), barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), and lentil (Lens culinaris Medik. culinaris) are three important food crops
The E factor explained the vast majority of the variation for Grain yield (GY), Days to heading (DTH) (D50F for lentil), Days to physiological maturity (DTM), and plant height (PLH) in durum wheat, barley, and lentil
The genotype x environment (G×E) interaction showed a larger contribution to the total variability compared to the G effect for GY, DTM, and PLH in the three crops, and for TSW in both durum wheat and barley

Summary

Introduction

Durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.), barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), and lentil (Lens culinaris Medik. culinaris) are three important food crops. Their importance is even greater in the dryland of many developing countries, where they represent true staples for human and livestock nutrition. These crops provide significant amounts of the daily intake of calories, protein, and rich sources of micronutrients such as zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe) [1,2,3]. The impact of heat stress and/or water stress have been investigated in durum wheat [7,8,9], barley [10,11], and lentil [12,13,14] Both stresses obstruct an array of processes including growth, floral development, carbohydrate reallocation, protein concentration in the grains, lipids, and micronutrient (zinc and iron) content, which affects grain and straw yield and quality [14,15,16]. Breeders have set off to develop new varieties better adapted to these climatic constraints, while at the same time trying to improve nutritional and transformation characteristics to add value to the harvest [20]

Methods

Results

Conclusion