Background: Hexaploid wheat is one of the most important cereal crops for human nutrition. Molecular understanding of the biology of the developing grain will assist the improvement of yield and quality traits for different environments. High quality transcriptomics is a powerful method to increase this understanding.

Increasing cereal yield is needed to meet the projected increased demand for world food supply of about 70% by 2050. Sirius, a process-based model for wheat, was used to estimate yield potential for wheat ideotypes optimized for future climatic projections for ten wheat growing areas of Europe. It was predicted that the detrimental effect of drought stress on yield would be decreased due to enhanced tailoring of phenology to future weather patterns, and due to genetic improvements in the response of photosynthesis and green leaf duration to water shortage. Yield advances could be made through extending maturation and thereby improve resource capture and partitioning. However the model predicted an increase in frequency of heat stress at meiosis and anthesis. Controlled environment experiments quantify the effects of heat and drought at booting and flowering on grain numbers and potential grain size. A current adaptation of wheat to areas of Europe with hotter and drier summers is a quicker maturation which helps to escape from excessive stress, but results in lower yields. To increase yield potential and to respond to climate change, increased tolerance to heat and drought stress should remain priorities for the genetic improvement of wheat.

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Most modern wheat cultivars contain major dwarfing genes, but their effects on root growth are unclear. Nearisogenic lines (NILs) containing Rht-B1b, Rht-D1b, Rht-B1c, Rht8c, Rht-D1c, and Rht12 were used to characterize the effects of semi-dwarfing and dwarfing alleles on root growth of 'Mercia' and 'Maris Widgeon' wheat cultivars. Wheat seedlings were grown in gel chambers, soil-filled columns, and in the field. Roots were extracted and length and dry mass measured. No significant differences in root length were found between semi-dwarfing lines and the control lines in any experiment, nor was there a significant difference between the root lengths of the two cultivars grown in the field. Total root length of the dwarf lines (Rht-B1c, Rht-D1c, and Rht12) was significantly different from that of the control although the effect was dependent on the experimental methodology; in gel chambers root length of dwarfing lines was increased by ;40% while in both soil media it was decreased (by 24-33%). Root dry mass was 22-30% of the total dry mass in the soil-filled column and field experiments. Root length increased proportionally with grain mass, which varied between NILs, so grain mass was a covariate for the analysis of variance. Although total root length was altered by dwarf lines, root architecture (average root diameter, lateral root:total root ratio) was not affected by reduced height alleles. A direct effect of dwarfing alleles on root growth during seedling establishment, rather than a secondary partitioning effect, was suggested by the present experiments.

It has been suggested that there are several potential benefits of providing nitrogen to cereals via the foliage as urea solution. These include: reduced nitrogen losses through denitrification and leaching compared with nitrogen fertilizer applications to the soil; the ability to provide nitrogen when root activity is impaired e.g., in saline or dry conditions, and uptake late in the season to increase grain nitrogen concentration. Factors that influence the degree of foliar absorption in field conditions have not, however, been clearly defined and losses to the atmosphere and soil can occur. Foliar urea applications may also hinder crop productivity although the explanations for this vary, and include desiccation of leaf cells, aqueous ammonia and urea toxicity, biuret contamination and the disruption of carbohydrate metabolism. It has not yet been determined which one, or combinations, of these mechanisms are most important in field situations. When damage has not been severe, foliar urea applications have increased grain yield, particularly when applied before flag leaf emergence and when nitrogen availability is limiting. Increases in grain nitrogen content are often larger when applications of nitrogen fertilizers to the soil are reduced, and when the urea solution is sprayed either at anthesis or during the following two weeks. It is during this period that foliar urea sprays can be of greater benefit than soil applications with regard to nitrogen utilization by the crop. Increases in wheat grain nitrogen concentration following urea application can improve breadmaking quality. Responses in loaf quality may, however, be variable particularly when increases in grain nitrogen content have been large, and/or when the nitrogen: sulphur ratio in the grain is increased. These circumstances have lead to alterations in the proportions of the different protein fractions which influence breadmaking potential. To exploit the full potential benefits of foliar urea application to cereals, more needs to be known about the mechanisms, and thus how to prevent losses of nitrogen from the foliage, and to reduce the phytotoxic influences of sprays. More information is also required to exploit the reported effects that urea may have on limiting the development of cereal diseases

SummaryA modified Gompertz model was derived to describe the fractional decline in green area of wheat flag leaves in field experiments where green leaf area at time t=100exp[‐exp(‐k(t‐m))]. Curves fitted over time to visual assessments of green leaf area (% of total leaf area) throughout flag leaf life accounted for more than 98% of variation in 45 of 48 wheat cultivar × fungicide treatment (+/−) comparisons. This data set spanned 17 yr and therefore included cultivars of contrasting parentage and age. In the absence of fungicide, green leaf area decline was associated with drought or infection with a number of foliar pathogens including Septoria tritici (sexual stage Mycospherella graminicola), Erysiphe graminis and Puccinia striiformis. Fungicides applied to the flag leaf included propiconazole, propiconazole plus tridemorph, flusilazole or azoxystrobin. Fungicide effects on m (i.e. time to 37% green area) were closely related to fungicide effects (% of untreated) on mean grain weight (variation accounted for (VAF) = 80%) and grain yield (VAF = 85%).

. (2011) The competitive ability of pea-barley intercrops against weeds and the interactions with crop productivity and soil N availability. AbstractGrain legumes, such as peas (Pisum sativum L.), are known to be weak competitors against 20 weeds when grown as the sole crop. In this study, the weed-suppression effect of pea-barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) intercropping compared to the respective sole crops was examined in 22 organic field experiments across Western Europe (i.e., Denmark, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy). Spring pea (P) and barley (B) were sown either as the sole crop, 24 at the recommended plant density (P100 and B100, respectively), or in replacement (P50B50) or additive (P100B50) intercropping designs for three seasons (2003)(2004)(2005). The weed 26 biomass was three times higher under the pea sole crops than under both the intercrops and barley sole crops at maturity. The inclusion of joint experiments in several countries and 28 various growing conditions showed that intercrops maintain a highly asymmetric competition over weeds, regardless of the particular weed infestation (species and productivity), the crop 30 biomass or the soil nitrogen availability. The intercropping weed suppression was highly resilient, whereas the weed suppression in pea sole crops was lower and more variable. The 32 pea-barley intercrops exhibited high levels of weed suppression, even with a low percentage of barley in the total biomass. Despite a reduced leaf area in the case of a low soil N 34 availability, the barley sole crops and intercrops displayed high weed suppression, probably because of their strong competitive capability to absorb soil N. Higher soil N availabilities 36 entailed increased leaf areas and competitive ability for light, which contributed to the overall competitive ability against weeds for all of the treatments. The contribution of the weeds in 38 the total dry matter and soil N acquisition was higher in the pea sole crop than in the other treatments, in spite of the higher leaf areas in the pea crops. 40 3