Cultivars and lines from ICARDA in spring durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) breeding in the Lower Volga region

Abstract

Background. In 1991, under the cooperation agreement, the Federal Center of Agriculture Research (FCAR) of the South-East Region received the first improved accessions from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). The objective of this work was to study the source material developed under comparable conditions of dryland agriculture and include the best accessions in scientific breeding programs.Material and methods. The presented data resulted from the study of spring durum wheat cultivars and lines from ICARDA (Aleppo, Syria), conducted in 1991–1998. Accessions with the best indicators of grain quality, adapted to the conditions of the Lower Volga, were selected and included into the crossing program. Grain analysis was carried out using the conventional methods for durum wheat as well as those modified by the Spring Durum Wheat Breeding Laboratory of the FCAR of the South-East.Result and conclusion. Many years of work led to identifying 22 lines of spring durum wheat, selected in the breeding nursery of the Main Competitive Trails (MCT) and in different years involved in complex multistep hybridization. The spring durum wheat cultivar ‘Lilek’ was included into the State Register for Selection Achievements in 2009, while cv. ‘Tamara’ was submitted to the State Variety Trials in 2020.

Development, results and prospects of the spring durum wheat breeding in Russia (post-Soviet states)

“…During this time, tens of thousands of hybrid combinations and millions of breeding lines have gone through cycles of natural and artificial selection. Modern cultivars in drought conditions exceed grain landraces by 2 times in productivity, the first breeding cultivars -by 1.5-1.8 times (Gaponov et al, 2017).…”

“…In the Research Institute of Agriculture of the South-East in the XX century , from the moment of the variety Gordeiforme 432 creation (selection from the local Beloturka), the genetic yield trend was 54 % (Vasilchuk, 2001). In the XXI century (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017) it increased by 22 % and amounted to 73.0 % or 0.79 % per year in general for the entire breeding period (Gaponov et al, 2017). Breeding progress in terms of yield was associated primarily with an increase in grain size, the number of productive stems and Harvest index (HI).…”

“…It was not possible to increase the number of spikelets per spike, the number of grains per spike and spikelet, with the exception of some cultivars. It is predicted that no cardinal changes in plant habitus (reduction in plant height) are expected (Vasilchuk, 2001;Gaponov et al, 2017).…”