Pre-Breeding to Improve Yield and Disease Resistance of Hard Red Winter Wheat
Abstract
Challenges to growing winter wheat in North Dakota include winter temperature and disease pressure. Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a devastating disease that necessitates breeding for resistance. In the NDSU breeding program FHB resistance genes are often associated with a decrease in performance. This study used single seed descent to advance lines while maintaining a near random population. Early generation (F4) selection focused heavily on yield and the presence of FHB resistance quantitative trait loci to develop winter wheat lines with FHB resistance and high yield.
Stripe rust is a fungal disease that is becoming increasingly problematic in North Dakota. To assess the available stripe rust resistance in the NDSU winter wheat germplasm, two sets of diverse breeding lines were used for stripe rust resistance phenotyping and genotyping by sequencing. The phenotype and genotype data were then used to locate resistance genes through genome wide association study.