Abstract only

Development and promotion of high-yielding varieties with high grain quality and resistance to diseases and pests are of great importance for main- taining high and stable yield in grain crop production. Development of input-responsive wheat varieties adapted to irrigated environment and with a complex of favorable agronomic and biological traits is of par- ticular significance. Success of breeding programs depends on the availability of diverse germplasm characterized by variability for the desired traits. Distant (inter-specific) hybridization and polyploidy contribute to development of germplasm with high genetic variability. According to N. Vavilov, choice of parent material is the comerstone of breeding. We have carried out distant (interspecific) hybridization between such species of wheat as Triticum aestivum, T. durum, T. turgidium, T compactum, etc. Reciprocal crosses were made that implied using of all lines as male and female parents. Combining ability of the genotypes was studied based on the yield components, and ratios of the segregating traits were estimated for all reciprocal crosses. According to the table, it may be concluded that high variability was observed in the segregating populations since the remote parental forms carried various numbers of the chromosomes. Among the segregant plants, we found plant types that differed very much from the parental lines, which suggested that wheat is characterized by very rich genetic va- riability due to composite genotype. Based on the study results, it may be conc- luded that distant interspecific hybrids are very va- luable parental material that contribute to deve- lopment of improved varieties in line with modern requirements.

English

0408|AGRIS 0401|AL-Wheat Program

Juan Carlos Mendieta

CIMMYT Publications Collection