Abstract
The breeding of wheat with greater early vigour has potential to increase water- and nutrient-use efficiency, as well as to improve weed competitiveness to raise crop yields profitably. Given that wheat is inherently conservative in its early growth, a sustained breeding effort was initiated to increase genetically seedling leaf area in developing novel high vigour germplasm. A recurrent selection programme was initiated by intercrossing a genetically diverse set of 28 vigorous wheat lines identified globally. These were intercrossed at random and S1:2 progeny with the largest leaf 1 and 2 widths were intermated to develop new populations for assessment of early growth. This procedure was repeated for up to 60 segregating families per cycle across six cycles over 15 years. Thirty random S1:2 progeny were retained from each cycle and seed-increased together to produce seed for early vigour assessment in multiple sowings. The most vigorous wheat seedlings were identified in later cycles, with some lines producing more than double the leaf area and biomass of elite commercial wheat varieties. Phenotypic selection for greater leaf width was associated with a realized significant (P<0.01) linear increase per seedling of 0.41 mm per cycle (+7.1%) for mean leaf width, and correlated linear increases in total leaf area and biomass of 4.48 cm(2) per cycle (+10.3%) and 10.8 mg per cycle (+5.3%), respectively. Genetic gains in widths of leaves 2 (+8.4%) and 3 (+11.5%) were significantly (P<0.01) greater than for leaf 1 (+5.3%). Selection for greater leaf width was associated with linear increases in coleoptile tiller leaf area, small curvilinear increases in leaf 1 length, and reductions in numbers of leaves and mainstem tillers. Genetic variances were large and heritabilities high for leaf width and total leaf area in each cycle, but reduced linearly in size with selection across cycles. Coupling diverse germplasm with a simple, inexpensive, and repeatable selection process has confirmed the value of recurrent selection in developing uniquely vigorous wheat germplasm for use as parents in commercial breeding.
Highlights
A large portion of the world’s rainfed wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is grown in Mediterranean-type climates characterized by cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers (Ward et al, 2008)
The most vigorous wheat seedlings were identified in later cycles, with some lines producing more than double the leaf area and biomass of elite commercial wheat varieties
Phenotypic selection for greater leaf width was associated with a realized significant (P
Summary
A large portion of the world’s rainfed wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is grown in Mediterranean-type climates characterized by cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers (Ward et al, 2008). Wheat breeders have been successful in maintaining genetic gain near 0.5% per year through yieldbased selection and by fine-tuning genotypic adaptation through changes in phenology and plant height. To increase harvest index (Perry and d’Antuono, 1989) These simple genetic changes have contributed to genetic gain in water-limited yield potential (Siddique et al, 1990), highlighting the opportunity and capacity to identify and exploit new additional genetic diversity to improve gain in water-use efficiency (WUE; Richards et al, 2002). More vigorous crops intercept more light to maximize crop growth rates and biomass with late sowing or for environments where crop duration is shorter (Takahashi and Gotoh, 1996; Regan et al, 1997)
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