Hybrid Wheat

Abstract

The importance of wheat as a human food provides incentive for continuing worldwide effort to improve its productivity. The discovery of an effective biological system in wheat involving cytoplasmic male sterility and pollen fertility restoration has opened a new approach to the further improvement of wheat. It provides the possibility of commercial utilization of F 1 hybrids to achieve new levels of productivity. The potential of hybrid wheat must be weighed against available research information. Optimism about the future role of hybrid wheat must be tempered by the cognizance of many technical problems that remain unsolved. Cytoplasmic male sterility in wheat appears to be a relatively stable phenomenon. Male fertility restoration, on the other hand, is highly sensitive to environment and has not yet been demonstrated to be adequate for safe use in an array of environments. The quality of wheat is of major importance because of the role of wheat as a human food. Available information would indicate the maintenance of acceptable quality and would not be an obstacle in hybrid wheat, if good quality parents are used. A key to the future of hybrid wheat may be the successful and stable seed production because it will determine hybrid seed cost. Available data reveal extreme variations in seed set on male-sterile varieties. The variation has been attributed to inherent varietal differences as well as to the effects of environment and conditions of experimentation.