Breeding progress for pathogen resistance is a second major driver for yield increase in German winter wheat at contrasting N levels

Abstract

Breeding has substantially increased the genetic yield potential, but fungal pathogens are still major constraints for wheat production. Therefore, breeding success for resistance and its impact on yield were analyzed on a large panel of winter wheat cultivars, representing breeding progress in Germany during the last decades, in large scale field trials under different fungicide and nitrogen treatments. Results revealed a highly significant effect of genotype (G) and year (Y) on resistances and G × Y interactions were significant for all pathogens tested, i.e. leaf rust, strip rust, powdery mildew and Fusarium head blight. N-fertilization significantly increased the susceptibility to biotrophic and hemibiotrophic pathogens. Resistance was significantly improved over time but at different rates for the pathogens. Although the average progress of resistance against each pathogen was higher at the elevated N level in absolute terms, it was very similar at both N levels on a relative basis. Grain yield was increased significantly over time under all treatments but was considerably higher without fungicides particularly at high N-input. Our results strongly indicate that wheat breeding resulted in a substantial increase of grain yield along with a constant improvement of resistance to fungal pathogens, thereby contributing to an environment-friendly and sustainable wheat production.

Characterization of 150 Wheat Cultivars by LC-MS-Based Label-Free Quantitative Proteomics Unravels Possibilities to Design Wheat Better for Baking Quality and Human Health

“…According to a Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn's test, only eleven and seven proteins showed an upward and downward temporal trend, respectively (Table 1 and Figure S1). This is in contrast to the findings on important agronomic traits in wheat revealing that modern wheat cultivars have higher yields and better disease resistance than old wheat cultivars [40]. Similarly, it was demonstrated that modern wheat cultivars had higher sedimentation volumes but lower protein contents than old wheat cultivars [1].…”

“…Previously, it was suggested that Hsp90 was implicated in controlling the seedling growth and resistance to stripe rust in wheat [42]. As modern wheat is selected for a high grain yield and high tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses [40], the identified upward trend of Hsp90 might be due to breeder selection. Nevertheless, further work might be required to prove this deduction.…”

Impact of Stripe Rust Resistance Alleles on Wheat Grain Yield Using Landraces and Improved Accessions

“…The negative impact of stripe rust on grain yield production was reported by several authors [1,[7][8][9]12,13,33,36,37]. That negative impact could be attributed to the photosynthesis impairment and assimilates reduction due to stripe rust infection, which reduces flower development, fertilization, and the development of ovules and consequently seed setting [38,39].…”

Mineral-Ecological Cropping Systems—A New Approach to Improve Ecosystem Services by Farming without Chemical Synthetic Plant Protection

“…Therefore, not only yield, quality, and marketing opportunities, but also resistances against multiple pathogens are key factors in the legal protection of varieties and their selection for cultivation [184]. Winter wheat varieties released in Germany are good examples, because the observed yield increase over past decades also resulted from, among other factors, strongly improved pathogen resistance [88,100]. Cultivation systems without CSPs require the perpetual development of varieties with durable resistances against multiple pathogens [185].…”