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Quo vadis wheat breeding: a case study in Central Europe

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Abstract

Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) is one of the most important crop species. It has been further developed since its initial domestication, with significant acceleration of wheat breeding within the last 100 years. In this study, a set of 355 wheat accessions were selected to document the history of bread wheat breeding in Central Europe. Although six periods of breeding were assumed, a notable turning point was identified between periods 3 and 4 around the year 1970 based on phenotype and genotype data, dividing the more than 100 years of bread wheat breeding into only two periods. While the first period corresponded to the use of landraces and genetically diverse varieties for breeding, the second period was typically characterized by reliance on relatively few varieties, leading to modern varieties with very good yields and high resistance to lodging and powdery mildew. A drawback of these breeding programmes was a substantial reduction in genetic diversity. The analysis of population structure showed that genetic diversity is influenced more by pedigree than by the period of breeding. In total, five genetic populations were identified, corresponding (especially within the last 50 years) to the leading genotypes used in breeding programmes: Bankuti 1205, Mironovskaja 808 and Moisson. A high level of correlation was found between the genotype and phenotype data (R = 0.91; p < 0.01). The results of this study indicated the need to broaden the genetic diversity of bread wheat by including landraces and possibly wild relatives of crops in new breeding or prebreeding programmes.

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Data availability

All data are provided in the supporting information and will be available at the time of publication. Material was obtained from the Prague Gene Bank upon purchase in the GRIN Czech database.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Czech Ministry of Agriculture, project RO0418. The authors thank Hana Udavská for excellent technical assistance and AJE for English editing.

Funding

This work was supported by the Czech Ministry of Agriculture, project RO0418.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute of Crop Production, Drnovska 507, 161 06, Prague, Czech Republic

    L. Leišová-Svobodová, J. Chrpová, J. Hermuth & L. Dotlačil

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  1. L. Leišová-Svobodová
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  2. J. Chrpová
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  3. J. Hermuth
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  4. L. Dotlačil
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Leona Leišová-Svobodová, Jana Chrpová, Jiří Hermuth and Ladislav Dotlačil. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Leona Leišová-Svobodová, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to L. Leišová-Svobodová.

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Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

List of all analysed samples with pedigree information (XLSX 37 kb)

Results of microsatellite analysis (XLSX 176 kb)

Results of phenotype analysis (XLSX 146 kb)

10681_2020_2670_MOESM4_ESM.xlsx

List of samples arranged in accordance with Figure S1 with the proportional membership of each genotype in 5 clusters K1–K5 (XLSX 36 kb)

10681_2020_2670_MOESM5_ESM.tif

Cluster analysis of PTT and PTM populations based on a Bayesian approach. Each genotype is represented by a bar divided into K colours, where K is the number of clusters assumed: 1—red; 2—green; 3—blue; 4—yellow; 5—violet. Individuals are sorted according to their breeding period (TIFF 5024 kb)

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Leišová-Svobodová, L., Chrpová, J., Hermuth, J. et al. Quo vadis wheat breeding: a case study in Central Europe. Euphytica 216, 141 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-020-02670-2

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