DEVELOPMENT OF WHEAT VARIETIES WITH HIGH YIELD, GOOD QUALITY, DROUGHT TOLERANCE, AND DISEASE RESISTANCE

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: HATCH
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1017084
• Project Start Date: Oct 1, 2018
• Project End Date: Sep 30, 2023
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
KANSAS STATE UNIV
(N/A)
MANHATTAN,KS 66506

Performing Department
KSU Agriculture Research Center-Hays

Non Technical Summary
Kansas is the top wheat producing state for both hard red and hard white in the USA. Most hard white in this state is grown in its southwestern region. Western Kansas is a semi-arid region and has about half of the state's wheat acreage. New wheat varieties with high yield, good drought tolerance, disease resistance, and good quality are critical for Kansas wheat growers and wheat industries to be competitive in the market. This project will continue to develop new hard red and hard white winter wheat varieties for western Kansas.

Animal Health Component

80%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

20%

Applied

80%

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
201	1549	1081	100%

Knowledge Area
201 - Plant Genome, Genetics, and Genetic Mechanisms;

Subject Of Investigation
1549 - Wheat, general/other;

Field Of Science
1081 - Breeding;

Keywords

wheat

western kansas

variety development

drought

rust

wheat streak mosaic virus

baking quality

Goals / Objectives
Develop and release hard red and hard white winter wheat varieties/germplasm with high yield, good quality, drought tolerance, and disease resistance for semi-arid western Kansas and surrounding areas.

Project Methods
In the next five years, conventional breeding methods will still be our primary approach for variety development. We will continue to use the modified bulk-pedigree method, where early generation populations are advanced as bulk, while individual plant selections are made for advanced breeding lines. In each year, based on previous years' data information and our specific breeding goals stated above, a wide array of wheat lines from our breeding program and other breeding programs or repositories around the world will be selected and introduced for making crosses to incorporate new genes and traits into our elite wheat lines/varieties. We will make around 400 two-way or three-way crosses in fall and spring of each year. Early generations F1and F2 will be bulk harvested. F3 seeds will be color sorted to separate the white seeds from the red ones if there is segregation on seed color in the population. Head selections will be made within each F3 population to grow F4 head rows. Head selections from white-seeded populations will go through a sprouting test in the misting chamber and sprouting-tolerant heads will be dried, threshed, and advanced as F4 head rows. About 20,000 F4 head rows will be evaluated each year. Head rows will be selected based on yield, test weight, agronomic traits, and disease resistance. Selected rows will then be tested in a yield trial (the first preliminary yield nursery, PYN1), which is unreplicated at one location (Hays). Promising lines will be further tested in the second year's preliminary yield nursery (PYN2), which is still unreplicated, but it has three locations across western Kansas. Elite lines will continue their third year's test in the advanced yield nursery (AYN) with two or three replications at six locations across Kansas. Selected elite lines will be further advanced for their fourth year's test in the Kansas intrastate nursery (KIN) with two or three replications at 19 locations across Kansas. Promising lines will be retained for their second and third year's KIN test. In their third year's KIN test, promising lines will also be tested in the Kansas Wheat Performance Tests (KWPT) with four replications, and in the Southern Regional Yield Nursery with three replications across the Great plains. Row-column design will be used for the yield trials. Data will be subjected to analysis of variance for each location using SAS 9.4. Starting from PYN1, selected lines will be subjected to various quality tests, which include sedimentation test, mixograph, farinograph, or baking test. After around six years' yield tests, superior lines will be considered for release. Additionally, head selections will be made for those head rows/lines selected for advance. These head selections will be planted as head rows for reselection, purification, and seed increase. Advanced lines will also be tested on PPO activity in the laboratory and WSMV/TriMV resistances in the growth chambers.In addition to conventional breeding methods, advanced technologies will also be employed when appropriate to make the variety development more efficient and effective. Marker assisted selection will be applied for traits difficult or expensive to evaluate, such as Bx7OE, waxy genes, rust genes, and WSMV resistance genes. Mapping populations will be developed through doubled haploid technology or single seed decent method, and tested for genetically mapping QTLs for yield, quality traits, drought tolerance, or WSMV resistance genes. Doubled haploid technology will also be employed to shorten the breeding cycle. Each year, 2,000-3,000 doubled haploid lines will be made for breeding purpose. Genomic selection will continue to be tested in our program using the data we had in the past five years. High throughput phenotyping will also be tired on our yield plots or head rows. Data obtained from high through-put phenotyping will be tried to improve our selection efficiency and accuracy.

Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20

Outputs
Target Audience:Wheat growers in western Kansas and surrounding areas, milling and baking industries, fellow scientists conducting research related to wheat breeding and genetics. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Provided training to five PhD students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Because of COVID-19, we can't havefield days in the field. But we have had a virtual Kansas Wheat Field Day to introduce our wheat varieties to producers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? In this reporting period, continuous efforts were made to the development of new hard red or white winter wheat varieties that adapt to the semi-arid western Kansas and surrounding areas. One new hard redwinter wheat variety, KS Hamilton wasreleased to the public through this project in August 2020.It had very good yield performance in western Kansas and eastern Colorado and excellent resistance to wheat streak mosaic virus. Its wheat streak mosaic virus resistance can hold up to 70 oF, which is similar to KS Dallas and higher than other resistant varieties. This variety has resistances to soilborne mosaic virus and Hessian fly. It also has intermediate reactions to leaf rust, the 2019 new strain of stripe rust, and acid soil.The adoption of this new varietywill benefit wheat growers and our society due to its high grain yield and good disease resistance. To address our project objectives, major activities during this report period have been conducted as following:(1) made 339 new crosses, (2) advanced 276 F1 and 239 F2 populations and selected over 24,000 F3 heads, (3) grew 19,488 F4 head rows and 2,987 doubled haploid short rows for field observations and selected 768 lines out of them for furtheryield testing, (4) planted and harvested 5,151 yield plots and advanced 244 lines for continued yield testing.Through these activities, new improved breeding lines were continuously developed for future releases. Our Key outcomes/achievements: one new variety, KS Hamilton, were developed and released to the public. Information about this new wheat varieties was delivered to Kansas wheat growers through presentation at a virtual field day event. This information helped producers make better decisions when comparing and choosing appropriate wheat varieties. In the fall 2020, all the foundation seed of this new variety (774 bushels) has been distributed to seed farmers to produce certified seed.In the fall of 2019, over 216,100 bushels certified seeds of our four varieties (Joe, KS Venada, Oakley CL, and Tatanka) have also been delivered to producers.

Publications

• Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Ranabhat N.B., M. Bruce, M.A. Davis, A.K. Fritz, and G. Zhang, J. Rupp. 2020. Reaction of selected Kansas winter wheat cultivars to Barley yellow dwarf, 2019. Plant Disease Management Report. 14: CF088.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: 1) Zhang G., T.J. Martin, A.K. Fritz, R. Miller, G. Bai, M.S. Chen, R.L. Bowden, Y. Jin, X. Chen, J.A. Kolmer, B.W. Seabourn. 2020. Registration of KS Venada hard white winter wheat. Journal of Plant Registrations. DOI: 10.1002/plr2.20026.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: 2) Zhang G., T.J. Martin, A.K. Fritz, Y. Li, G. Bai, R.L. Bowden, M.S. Chen, Y. Jin, X. Chen, J.A. Kolmer, B.W. Seabourn, R.Y. Chen, D. Marshall. 2020. Registration of KS Dallas hard white winter wheat. Journal of Plant Registrations. https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20104.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: 3) Munaro, L., T. Hefley, E. Dewolf, S.D. Haley, A.K. Fritz, G. Zhang, L. Haag, A. Schlegel, J. Edwards, D. Marburger, P. Alderman, S. Jones-Diamond, J. Johnson, J. Lingenfelser, S. Un�da-Trevisoli, R. Lollato. 2020. Exploring long-term variety performance trials to improve environment-specific genotype � management recommendations: A case-study for winter wheat. Field Crops Research. 255: Article#107848.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: 4) Bastos, L.M., W. Carciochi, R.P. Lollato, B.R. Jaenisch, C.R. Rezende, R. Schwalbert, P.V. Vara Prasad, G. Zhang, A.K. Fritz, C. Foster, Y. Wright, S. Young, P. Bradley, and I.A. Ciampitti. 2020. Winter wheat yield response to plant density as a function of yield environment and tillering potential: A review and field studies. Frontiers in Plant Science. 11: Article# 54.
• Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Mangel D.J.L., M.A. Davis, M. Bruce, A.K. Fritz, G. Zhang, and J. Rupp. 2020. Reaction of Kansas Interstate Nursery winter wheat accessions to Fusarium head blight, 2019. Plant Disease Management Report. 14: CF090.

Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience:Wheat growers from western and central Kansas, professionals from milling and baking industries in USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Peru, fellow scientists on wheat related research. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Provided training to two PhD students, and 15 India undergraduate students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Information about our new varieties has been delivered to wheat growers through presentations at one eventand four field days, and one online e-update publication. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Kansas is the top wheat producing state not only for hard red winter wheat, but also for hard white winter wheat. Along with the continued decreasing wheat acreages and low grain price, new wheat varieties with high yield, disease resistance, and good end-use quality has never been that critical for the world food security and the thrival of wheat growers and wheat industries. This project is designated to integrate the conventional breeding method with advanced technologies to develop both hard red and hard white winter wheat varieties for western Kansas and neighboring areas. The new wheat varieties and knowledge produced from this project will be benefiting our wheat growers, wheat industries, and our fellow scientists conducting wheat breeding work for other wheat growing regions. In this report period, continuous efforts were made to the development of new hard red or white winter wheat varieties that adapt to the semi-arid western Kansas and surrounding areas. Two hard red (KS Dallas and KS Western Star) and one hard white (KS Silverado) winter wheat varieties were released to the public through this project in August 2019. Compared to our varieties released in the past years, KS Dallas has improved wheat streak disease resistance and improved end-user qualities. KS Western Star has improved straw strength, improved drought tolerance, improved wheat streak disease resistance, and improved end-user qualities. KS Silverado has improved pre-harvest sprouting tolerance, improved straw strength, and improved end-user qualities. All these three new varieties will benefit farmers, and milling and baking industries in an economic way. To address our project objectives, major activities during this report period were conducted as following: (1) Made over 250 new crosses, (2) Advanced over 800 early generation populations (F1, F2, and F3), (3) grew 19,440 F4 head rows and 4926 doubled haploid short rows for field observations and selected 554 lines out of them, (4) planted and harvested over 6500 yield plots in various yield trials. Through these activities, we had several significant/achievements as following: (1) new hard red winter wheat variety, KS Dallas, was released. It had very good yield performance in western Kansas and eastern Colorado. KS Dallas has excellent resistance to wheat streak mosaic virus, good rust resistance, and good baking quality. Its wheat streak mosaic virus resistance can hold up to 70 oF, which is about five degrees higher than those resistant varieties with Wsm2, such as Joe and Oakley CL; (2) new hard red winter wheat variety, KS Western Star, was released. It performed very well in both western and central Kansas. KS Western Star has good drought tolerance, and good resistances to stripe rust, leaf rust, and soilborne mosaic virus. It has resistance to wheat curl mite, which is the vector for viruses that caused wheat streak disease. It has very good straw strength and grain shattering resistance. It has very good milling and baking qualities; (3) new hard white winter wheat variety, KS Silverado, was released. It had good performance in both western and central Kansas. KS Silverado has very good pre-harvest sprouting tolerance. It has a good disease resistance package, including stripe rust, leaf rust, stem rust, soilborne mosaic virus, and Hessian fly. It has good straw strength. It is intermediate to moderately tolerant to acid soil. It has very good milling and baking qualities; (4) one hard red winter wheat breeding line was approved for seed increase as a potential release in 2020. Our Key outcomes/achievements: three new varieties, KS Dallas, KS Western Star, and KS Silverado, were developed and released to the public. Information about these three new wheat varieties was delivered to Kansas wheat growers through presentations at several event and field days. This information helped producers make better decisions when comparing and choosing appropriate wheat varieties. In the fall 2019, over 3,200 bushels of foundation seed for these three new varieties have been distributed to seed farmers to produce certified seeds. The adoption of these new varieties will benefit wheat growers, wheat industries, and our society due to their high yield, disease resistance, and good end-user qualities.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Kumssa T.T., J.S. Rupp, M.C. Fellers, J.P. Fellers, G. Zhang. 2019. An isolate of Wheat streak mosaic virus from foxtail overcomes Wsm2 resistance in wheat. Plant Pathology. Doi: 10.1111/ppa.12989.