Title:
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Identification of radiation use efficiency traits in a wheat and spelt population
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Wheat is one of the main staple food crops, providing an essential source of
carbohydrates for millions of people. Therefore, demand for wheat will
increase in next few decades as the global population increases toward a
prediction 9 billion by 2050. Further advances in wheat yield requires the
integration of new tools and strategies to complement traditional approaches
to select genotypes that are better suited to abiotic stress, in the context of
climate change. Identifying morphological and physiological characters,
correlated with tolerance to environmental stress, is a priority for wheat
breeders. One approach that can be combined in wheat breeding
programmes is to create new genetic variation, for example by crossing
wheat with close relatives such as spelt.
The overall objective of this study is to investigate the physiological traits
associated with radiation use efficiency (RUE) in a segregating population of
225 recombinant inbred lines, originating from the cross of wheat (cv. Forno)
with spelt (cv. Oberkulmer). Three field experiments from 2010 to 2012 were
carried out at Sutton Bonington. All lines, and their parents, were grown as
ear rows in 2010 and arranged in randomized design with one replicate of
mini plots in 2011. In 2012 three replicates were grown in a randomised
complete block design. In these experiments, plant development, RUE,
biomass, grain yield and associated physiological traits were measured in the
recombinant inbred lines. In addition, a glasshouse experiment was
conducted in 2013 to investigate gas exchange traits amongst 18 selected
lines with a wide range of RUE, alongside the parents.
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