Open Access

In order to accelerate genetic gains from their current rate of around 0.6% p.a. (Sharma et al. 2012), given that genetic bases of cultivar level differences in yield potential is still largely unknown, wheat breeding efforts currently depend on three main approaches: 1) Strategic hybridization to combine complementary yield potential traits; 2) Use of exotic germplasm to complement levels of expression in conventional gene pools; 3) High throughput phenotyping for progeny selection. Using all information available on photosynthetic and partitioning traits, hybridization schemes were designed to combine physiological traits (PTs) with the view to achieving cumulative gene action for yield potential (Reynolds et al. 2012). These approaches have recently delivered new germplasm that expressed both higher yield and biomass compared to local checks at the majority of the 18 international sites where they were tested, as the 1st International Wheat Yield Consortium Yield Trial (1st WYCYT) in 2013 (see Reynolds et al. 2014). Progeny from this breeding effort and other material developed using similar approaches are already being used to better understand the genetic basis of yield potential (e.g. Griffiths et al. 2015). The pre-breeding effort is ongoing, and the following data result from subsequent international yield trials and germplasm evaluations in Mexico.

Global Wheat Program

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