Precision asreml-t
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However, the rate of genetic progress has slowed in recent years. Traditional wheat breeding relies heavily on selection for yield per se and has contributed to significant increases in yield. Water deficit during critical periods of crop development such as grain filling, can greatly impact yield stability and productivity in rain-fed agricultural systems. Such root characteristics are highly desirable in wheat to cope with anticipated future climate conditions, particularly where crops rely heavily on stored soil moisture at depth, including some Australian, Indian, South American, and African cropping regions.ĭrought is a major limiting factor of wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) production world-wide. For instance, selection for narrow root angle and high number of seminal roots could lead to deeper root systems with higher branching at depth. The clear-pot method could be easily integrated in breeding programs targeting drought tolerance to rapidly enrich breeding populations with desirable alleles. Therefore the clear pot method was considered the most suitable for large-scale and high-throughput screening of seedling root characteristics in crop improvement programs. In addition, the clear pot method was more efficient – requiring less time, space, and labour compared to the growth pouch method. The clear pot method provided higher heritability and higher genetic correlations across experiments compared to the growth pouch method. Resultsīoth methods revealed genetic variation for seminal root angle and number in the panel of 24 wheat cultivars. Here, we report two methods, one using clear pots and the other using growth pouches, to assess the angle and the number of seminal roots in wheat seedlings– two proxy traits associated with the root architecture of mature wheat plants. The aim of this research was to develop low-cost high-throughput phenotyping methods to facilitate selection for desirable root architectural traits. Root system architecture has important functional implications for the timing and extent of soil water extraction, yet selection for root architectural traits in breeding programs has been limited by a lack of suitable phenotyping methods. Water availability is a major limiting factor for wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) production in rain-fed agricultural systems worldwide.