A unified framework for hybrid breeding and the establishment of heterotic groups in wheat

Abstract

Global wheat genetic diversity can be used in a unified framework to support and accelerate hybrid breeding and the development of heterotic groups in wheat. Hybrid wheat breeding has great potential to increase the global wheat grain yield level particularly in view of the increasing abiotic and biotic stress challenges as well as variable climatic conditions. For the long-term success of hybrid wheat breeding and the maximum exploitation of heterosis, high-yielding heterotic patterns must be established. Here, we propose a unified framework for hybrid breeding and the establishment of heterotic groups in autogamous crops and exemplify it for hybrid wheat breeding in Germany. A key component is the establishment of genetic distance between heterotic groups and in this context, we assessed genetic diversity in a global collection of 1110 winter wheat varieties released during the past decades in 35 countries but with a focus on European origin. Our analyses revealed the absence of major population structure but nevertheless suggest genetically distinct subgroups with potential for hybrid wheat breeding. Taking our molecular results and additional phenotypic data together, we propose how global genetic diversity can be used to accelerate and support reciprocal recurrent selection for the development of genetically distinct heterotic groups in hybrid wheat breeding.

A modern Green Revolution gene for reduced height in wheat

“…Boeven et al . () have recently described nine lines known to be good males with favorable floral characteristics. Interestingly, all these lines carry Rht24b and with only one exception are wild‐type for Rht‐B1 and Rht‐D1 .…”

A three‐component system incorporating Ppd‐D1, copy number variation at Ppd‐B1, and numerous small‐effect quantitative trait loci facilitates adaptation of heading time in winter wheat cultivars of worldwide origin

“…A panel of 1,110 soft winter wheat ( Triticum aestivum ssp. aestivum ) cultivars was used for this study, as described previously (Boeven, Longin, & Würschum, ; Würschum, Langer, Longin, Tucker, & Leiser, ). This panel includes cultivars from worldwide origin released during the past decades, but with a focus on European cultivars.…”

Heterosis for Biomass and Grain Yield Facilitates Breeding of Productive Dual‐Purpose Winter Barley Hybrids

“…Longin et al, 2012;Mühleisen et al, 2013a). Because genetic distance of homozygous parental lines is proportional to the differences in gene frequency (Boeven et al, 2016), and a strong association between marker-based genetic distance and heterosis of GY has been observed in maize (Melchinger, 1993(Melchinger, , 1999Reif et al, 2003), we have calculated the Rogers distance to test for the correlation between genetic distance and heterosis of different phenotypic traits. Although male and female pools could be distinguished using principal component analysis (Fig.…”