Study of winter wheat collection for developing initial material with low Cd-uptake

Abstract

Winter wheat is the leading crop in Ukraine and the world and provides the human food needs. The leading breeding institutions of Ukraine are studying wheat collections, which makes it possible to identify sources and donors of necessary breeding traits and involve them in hybridization. For a systematic and successful hybridization programme a thorough understanding of genetic architecture of plant yield and other important economic characters must be achieved. One of the current areas of breeding work is obtaining the source material with low ability to accumulate heavy metals, in particular cadmium. The accumulation of cadmium in the soil leads to its absorption by the root system of plants and intaking in the vegetative and generative organs. Among the crops that have a high ability to actively accumulate cadmium, winter wheat is one of the first places. The minimization of Cd pollution in wheat grain is urgently needed. In many countries technical solutions for decreasing wheat grain cadmium are elaborated. Іn particular, the methods of сonventional breeding (selection, hybridization, pure lines) are used. One of the possible ways to solve this problem is to create breeding varieties, which are characterized by low ability to accumulate this heavy metal The aim of the study was to establish the breeding value of the collection genotypes of winter wheat of various origins on the base of morphological and productivity traits, isolating and developing on this basis the initial material for breeding. Field experiment was carried out in the research field of Sumy NAU. There were selected 41 varieties representing 7 major breeding centers of wheat in Ukraine. Growth parameters (height) and leaf surface area were analyzed in the wheat varieties. These traits were related to productivity parameters such as 1000 seed weight, grain weight per ear and yield. Based on the collection analysis, wheat samples, which, along with high yields, had a low Cd uptake (less than 1.2 mg/kg. were isolated. This group includes varieties of Okhtyrchanka Juvileina, Svitanok Myronivskyi, Melody Odes’ka, Kubok, Zorepad, Ovidiy, Shchedra Nyva, Oktava Odes’ka and Slaven. These samples are planned to use for further breeding process.