Wheat Agronomic and Quality Traits Associations and Potential Improvement Using Elite X Non-Adapted Crosses.

Wheat improvement has been accompanied by a narrowing germplasm base, as newer cultivars have been derived from elite crosses. Therefore, there is a concern that narrow germplasm may restrict breeding improvement for important traits. To examine the possibility of using un-adapted genotypes in wheat breeding programs to develop elite germplasm, a two-year study was conducted to evaluate the agronomic and quality performance of 160 Recombinant Inbred Lines (RILs) developed from an elite adapted hard red spring wheat line (ND 705) and a non-adapted wheat genotype (PI 414566). The experiment was conducted at Prosper and Carrington, ND in 2009 and 2010. Results from this study showed that under favorable conditions, many RILs had a better performance than the adapted parent for most traits. Transgressive segregation occurred for all the traits except for spike color and Kernel weigh. Eight RILs yielded better than the adapted parent ND 705 and two RILs, along with three checks, were significantly superior for grain yield across all environments. Although the non-adapted parent has a facultative grown habit, several RILs flowered similarly to the adapted parent. Two RILs had better flour extraction compared to the other genotypes. Significant correlations between and among agronomic and quality traits, particularly between grain yield and agronomic and quality traits such grain protein and flour extraction were observed. The good agronomic and quality attributes showed by some RIL and positive corrections among some of them suggest that the use of a non-adapted parent can broaden the genetic variability while improving some traits.