It was a good year for winter wheat breeding, says Sunish Sehgal, South Dakota State University winter wheat breeder.

"We have several good experimental lines which showed up to 10% increase in yield over our released varieties," he says.

Although heat at the end of May hurt the yield potential, South Dakota genotypes were among the top entries in trials east of the Missouri River. West of the Missouri River, both private industry and SDSU material did well, he says.

SDSU has expanded its wheat breeding significantly in recent years. The number of lines being tested has increased nearly 50%. Two new plot locations near Hayes and Wall were added, bringing the total number of sites to seven. Another site will be added near Mount Vernon.

SDSU is one of 15 universities working on a $9 million coordinated effort to enhance yields and disease resistance using genomic resources.

In additional, Sehgal led a team that mapped four wheat chromosomes as part of the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium’s effort. They also identified six genomic regions highly associated with resistance to spot blotch, a fungal disease that affects the leaves and typically leads to 20% yield losses, and they developed molecular markers that can be used to monitor the genes’ movement.

"The wheat genome sequence is going to be a revolutionary change to the way we have been doing wheat breeding," Sehgal says. "It will open avenues for far higher precision breeding and precision genetics, such as CRISPR-Cas9. The genome sequence will become a regular tool in the breeder's toolbox in coming years."

The breeding program is supported in part by the wheat checkoff.

Source: SDSU