No abstract

No abstract

In recent years, barley has attracted more interest as a food and feed source because of its high soluble dietary fiber and β-glucan content compared with other small grains. Twenty-five barley genotypes (20 imported genotypes and five check cultivars) were grown in three environments for two successive seasons: 2015/2016 and 2016/2017. The first environment was in El-Nubaria, Alexandria, Egypt during 2015/2016, while the second and third environments were in El-Bostan, Elbhera, Egypt during 2015/2016 and 2016/2017. The experiments were conducted in a randomized complete block design with the three replicates. The primary objectives of the current study were to evaluate the performance of 20 imported barley genotypes under several environmental conditions. The imported materials were superior to the local commercial cultivars for several traits, including grain yield. Therefore, the superior genotypes will be further evaluated and used in barley breeding programs. Our future work will focus on creating several crosses among the selected superior genotypes to improve yield and other important traits, while applying marker-assisted selection.

In the current study, 248 two-rowed and another 253 six-rowed spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) breeding lines from several US barley breeding programs were evaluated in multiple locations in Egypt to select for potentially adapted lines. The introduced plant materials were planted in two locations during three growing seasons (2015, 2016, and 2017). The focus of the first growing season was to increase available seeds and collect preliminary observations. During the second and third growing seasons, the advanced plant materials and local check cultivars were planted in an incomplete block design in two replicates within three locations. Grain yield, leaf rust, number of days to flowering, and plant height were measured. Based on grain yield production, the top 94 lines from the two-rowed and 100 from the six-rowed barley lines were selected and advanced for further evaluation in 2017. The introduced materials contained several lines that consistently outperformed the check cultivars. Therefore, these lines could be used as parents to improve barley production and enhance genetic diversity or be directly released as cultivars after appropriate testing in Egypt.

No abstract

The University of Nebraska has bred some of the most winter hardy wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars in the United States. With the advent of a new race of stem rust in Africa, the breeding program identified a testing site in northern Egypt, a Mediterranean environment, for seedling disease resistance screening. Quite surprisingly, the Nebraska winter wheat lines flowered when grown in northern Egypt, indicating the lines were vernalized. To confirm this result, a panel of 112 Nebraska winter wheat genotypes and three commercially grown Egyptian spring wheat check cultivars were grown in three replicates in a randomized incomplete block design at two locations for 3 years (2016/2017-2018/2019) in Egypt. Seven traits were measured on all genotypes (the number of days to flowering; total chlorophyll content; plant height; leaf, stem, and stripe rust reaction; and grain yield). The winter wheat genotypes flowered and several of them were not significantly different in grain yield from the spring cultivars. A multi-trait stability index identified 22 genotypes (20% selection intensity, the local checks, and 19 lines from the United States) for good performance. This study provides novel evidence that winter wheat can flower in northern Egypt, can be used for adult plant resistance screening, and provide a grain yield comparable to the commercially grown spring wheat cultivars. Our findings are expected to facilitate future efforts to hybridize winter-by-spring lines to develop new genotypes with ANOVA, analysis of variance; BLUP, best linear unbiased prediction; CIMMYT, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center; GEI, genotype by environment interaction; GY, grain yield; LR, leaf rust; ME, mega-environment; MET, multi-environment trial; MTSI, multi-trait stability index; NDF, number of days to flowering; PCA, principal component analysis; PH, plant height; SPAD, soil plant analysis development; SR, stem rust; WAAS, weighted average absolute score; YR, yellow rust.

No abstract

No abstract