Some Methodological Approaches to the Identification of Heat Resistant Genotypes of Cultivated Plants (on the Example of Cereals)

Abstract

The problem of cultivated plants resistance to heat as the effect of high air temperatures leading to physiological drought is extremely relevant not only in the conditions of predicted climate aridization, but also when studying the effects of relatively short-term “heat waves”. Modern breeding is focused on the creation of high-yielding heat-resistant varieties of cultivated plants, especially cereals as the main world food resource. During breeding developments, it is necessary to first identify heat-resistant cereal genotypes for their insertion in the appropriate programs. The article provides a critical analysis of a number of approaches presented in the literature to identify such genotypes (modeling of the effect of the high temperature stress factor in experimental conditions in situ; the use of anthers in such conditions as the generative structures more sensitive to the effects of this stress factor in comparison with vegetative organs), which can be assessed as methodological. In addition, from the standpoint of descriptive and experimental plant embryology, the use of interrelated concepts (developed by T.B. Batygina, 2014 and earlier) is proposed as the promising methodological approach: the assessment of the anther as the complex integrated tissue system and the presence of critical stages in the development of this system.