Spring Wheat Breeding: Evaluation of Selected Adapted Spring Wheat Germplasm in Eastern Canada

Shahrokh Khanizadeh,Hana Moidu,Ellen Sparry,Allan Cummiskey,Mirko Tabori,Mark Etienne,Xuelian Wang,Harvey Voldeng,Allen Xue,Jean Goulet,Richard Martin

doi:10.5539/jps.v5n2p1

Abstract

Twenty-five hard red spring wheat (<em>Triticum aestivum</em>) lines, including three known cultivars used as checks, were grown in seven locations across Eastern Canada. The objective of this multi-location experiment was to evaluate selected Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre advanced lines (ECAD lines) from the Spring Wheat Breeding Program in order to identify the best lines for performance and grower trials. The lines from this trial performed very well compared to the check varieties, especially at the Ontario locations. Overall, the ECAD lines were on a par with or superior to the checks in terms of several attributes, including yield, protein content, and Fusarium head blight resistance.

Highlights

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) breeding programs across Canada aim to produce high-yielding varieties (McCaig and DePauw 1995) with improved resistance to diseases, especially Fusarium head blight (FHB) (Gilbert & Tekauz 2000; McCaig & DePauw, 1995), early maturity (Thomas & Graf, 2014), and high protein content (Wang et al, 2002)
A total of 25 selected hard red spring wheat germplasm lines, including three known cultivars, were chosen from three populations, namely, eight lines from Ontario (ECO406.1-8, ECO427.1-19, ECO439.1-20, ECO441.1-32, ECO446.1-29, ECO448.1-38, EC0330-9, and AW775), eleven lines from Quebec (11NQW-28, 11NQW-112, 11NQW-161, 11NQW-294, 11NQW-372, 11NQW-624, 11NQW-697, 11NQW-842, 11NQW-956, 10NQW-228, and FL62R1), and three lines were selected from the western breeding program (11BS2210, 11BS2288, and 11BW0292), along with three known cultivars to be used as “checks” for comparison purposes (‘AC Scotia’, ‘AC Carberry’, and ‘Sable’), in seven locations in Eastern Canada (Table 1)
A In the current study, the ECAD lines generally performed best among all the tested lines based on the data analysis results for the different attributes

Summary

Introduction

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) breeding programs across Canada aim to produce high-yielding varieties (McCaig and DePauw 1995) with improved resistance to diseases, especially Fusarium head blight (FHB) (Gilbert & Tekauz 2000; McCaig & DePauw, 1995), early maturity (Thomas & Graf, 2014), and high protein content (Wang et al, 2002). Through these programs, crop losses have been greatly reduced and grain quality has been increased (Thomas and Graf 2014). FHB is difficult to manage, because shorter plants are more susceptible, and more than half of the world’s wheat cultivars contain two major dwarfing genes www.ccsenet.org/jps

Methods

Results

Conclusion