The study of agronomical traits determining the productivity of the Triticum aestivum/Triticum timopheevii introgression lines with resistance to fungal diseases

Abstract

The development of resistant cultivars is one of the effective ways to protect common wheat T. aestivum L. from fungal pathogens. The gene pool of wild and cultivated wheat relatives is often used for widening the genetic diversity of the resistance genes. However, the alien genetic material introgressed into the wheat genome can contain genetic factors negatively affecting agronomically important traits. The T. aestivum/T. timopheevii introgression lines originating from different common wheat cultivars have characteristically good resistance to leaf rust and powdery mildew. A comparative assessment of these lines and the initial wheat varieties during four field seasons revealed the significant effect of environmental factors on the phenotypic differences between traits relevant to productivity. The averaged data obtained for individual introgression lines and for cross combinations revealed both positive and negative tendencies in the variations of the agronomical traits. The positive effects include a significant increase in the numbers of tillers and spikelets per spike of the lines originating from cv. Skala. A reduction in spike productivity was found in the groups of lines originating from cv. Tselinnaya 20 and cv. Novosibirskaya 67. However, no significant differences in the 1000-grain weight were found between most lines and the original wheat cultivars. The analysis of the data obtained showed no apparent correlation between the reduction of agronomic traits and the amount of alien genetic material introgressed into the common wheat genome. T. aestivum/T. timopheevii introgression lines can be used as a source of resistance genes without reducing the yield of wheat cultivars.