Harnessing Genetic Diversity: Advancing Wheat Resilience and Nutritional Fortification Through Introgression Against Climate Challenges
摘要
Biofortification and resistance-based yield improvement are the primary target traits in wheat keeping pace with population, climate change and nutritional demands. The study undertaken in North Western Plain Zone of India (the bread basket for yield, hotspot for stripe rust) was aimed to transfer stripe rust resistance into micronutrient introgressed F1s and validate three-way F2 population for resistance, iron and zinc content using molecular markers. The bio fortification targets were attempted utilizing CGIAR-based Harvest Plus wheat resources and stripe rust resistance through global consortium of resistant germplasm including Australian genotypes with proven resistance based on multilocation testing. Twenty-four three-way F1s were screened for stripe rust resistance using phenotypic and molecular markers. Analysis of variance of the thirty-seven genotypes including parents and three-way F1s were found significant for all the traits indicating existence of significant genetic variation. Parental polymorphism revealed the presence of iron and Yr genes in all the genotypes except JAUW 683 which validated for zinc and Yr genes. The genotypes Longreach Beaufort and Longreach Gauntlet showed maximum trait combination of iron, zinc, and Yr genes. Molecular analysis of three-way F2s, revealed the presence of both iron and Yr genes in sixteen crosses and a diverse array of Yr genes in seven crosses. No F2 population could be identified with a combination of iron, zinc, and all Yr genes. RSP 561/HP 49/AGP 71 and HD 3086/HP 32/AGP 71 were the most promising cross combinations with high yield, stripe rust resistance, and micronutrient linkage.