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Breeding Cereals for Improved Agronomic and Quality Traits under Adverse...
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Breeding Cereals for Improved Agronomic and Quality Traits under Adverse Environmental Conditions

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Genotype Evaluation and Breeding".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 April 2024) | Viewed by 3028

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Valentina Španić

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Small Cereal Crops Breeding and Genetics, Agricultural Institute Osijek, Juzno Predgradje 17, 31000 Osijek, Croatia
Interests: wheat breeding and genetics; abiotic and biotic stress; plant defense
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Hrvoje Šarčević

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biometrics, University of Zagreb Faculty of Agriculture, Zagreb, Croatia
2. Center of Excellence for Biodiversity and Molecular Plant Breeding, Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: wheat; maize; molecular markers; breeding for yield and quality
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cereals are an important component of daily diets worldwide and play a key role in ensuring food security. To ensure food security, food production must increase by at least 60 percent to meet the needs of future populations. Along with this problem, future projections in global yield trends of cereals indicate a significant decline. The negative impacts of climate change resulting in biotic or abiotic stresses are the main cause of the decline in crop yields in recent years. Significant variation among genotypes and environments has been reported for different agronomic and quality traits of cereal crops, and their interaction has often been shown to contribute to a great proportion of overall trait variation. High variation in environmental conditions across locations and years, significantly influenced by increasing incidence of various biotic and abiotic stresses, usually increases the G × E component of variation and consequently decreases the heritability of a trait and its response to selection. Therefore, breeding efforts for increased stress tolerance can contribute significantly to the overall stability of grain yield and quality in cereal varieties.

This Special Issue (SI) aims to collect reliable information and experiences from around the world on genetic and breeding aspects of tolerance of cereal crops to biotic and abiotic stresses. The SI is open to research articles, opinions, reviews, and perspectives.

Welcome topics include, but are not limited to, agro-morphological and quality traits.

Dr. Valentina Španič
Prof. Dr. Hrvoje Šarčević
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • cereals
  • abiotic stress
  • biotic stress
  • agronomic traits
  • grain yield
  • grain quality
  • genetics
  • breeding
  • genotype × environment interaction
  • stability

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 1325 KiB  
Article
The Use of Sodium Hypochlorite and Plant Preservative Mixture Significantly Reduces Seed-Borne Pathogen Contamination When Establishing In Vitro Cultures of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Seeds
by Anita Bošnjak Mihovilović, Snježana Kereša, Boris Lazarević, Snježana Topolovec Pintarić, Katarina Martinko, Zvjezdana Marković, Katarina Turkalj and Ivanka Habuš Jerčić
Agriculture 2024, 14(4), 556; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14040556 - 31 Mar 2024
Viewed by 589
Abstract
In vitro plants that are free of pathogens are crucial for biotechnological breeding methods. The present study investigates the effects of sterilization with sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) and the addition of Plant Preservative Mixture (PPMTM) to the growth medium on pathogen elimination, [...] Read more.
In vitro plants that are free of pathogens are crucial for biotechnological breeding methods. The present study investigates the effects of sterilization with sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) and the addition of Plant Preservative Mixture (PPMTM) to the growth medium on pathogen elimination, germination, and seedling development of the winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) variety Mara. The sterilization treatments differed in the duration of seed sterilization in 4% NaClO and the PPM concentration added to the growth medium. Pathogenic fungi of the genera Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Penicillium, and Bipolaris were completely eliminated when the seeds were sterilized in NaClO and placed on growth media with the addition of PPM. Extending the duration of the sterilization treatment with NaClO to 50 min reduced Fusarium contamination, while the interaction between the 50 min sterilization treatment with NaClO and the addition of PPM to the growth medium reduced Alternaria contamination. Our results suggest that PPM could complement sterilization procedures with NaClO in the introduction of highly infected wheat seeds in vitro. Seed germination was not affected by sterilization with NaClO or by the addition of PPM. However, PPM at a concentration of 4 mL L−1 had a negative effect on seedling development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Breeding Cereals for Improved Agronomic and Quality Traits under Adverse Environmental Conditions)
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14 pages, 1225 KiB  
Article
Morphological Characterization of 1322 Winter Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Varieties from EU Referent Collection
by Valentina Spanic, Zvonimir Lalic, Ivica Berakovic, Goran Jukic and Ivan Varnica
Agriculture 2024, 14(4), 551; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14040551 - 30 Mar 2024
Viewed by 641
Abstract
The wheat grain yields increased in EU from 4.98 t ha−1 to 5.45 t ha−1 in the periods from 2006 to 2014 to from 2015 to 2023. It is hypothesized that changes in specific morphological traits over the years resulted in [...] Read more.
The wheat grain yields increased in EU from 4.98 t ha−1 to 5.45 t ha−1 in the periods from 2006 to 2014 to from 2015 to 2023. It is hypothesized that changes in specific morphological traits over the years resulted in grain yield increase due to the utilization of new wheat varieties in production. To highlight the current status and changes over time, we evaluated a comprehensive panel of 1322 wheat varieties that included testing of morphological traits of varieties recognized from period from 2006 till 2023. Positive relation of registration year with traits such as seed color, glaucosity of neck of culm, plant height, ear length, scurs and awns length, ear color, and shape of the beak of the lower glume was obtained. The most significant changes over time resulted in a darker color of the seed, decreased area of hairiness of the convex surface of the apical rachis segment, enhanced glaucosity of the neck of the culm and decreased frequency of the plants with recurved flag leaves. It was shown that traits such as the frequency of plants with recurved flag leaves, time of emergence, glaucosity of flag leaves, existence of scurs and awns, and area of the hairiness of the convex surface of the apical rachis segment had significant decreases over time. This research demonstrated the importance of twelve morphological traits in the varietal improvement of grain yield over the time from 2006 to 2023. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Breeding Cereals for Improved Agronomic and Quality Traits under Adverse Environmental Conditions)
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16 pages, 275 KiB  
Article
Performance of Symmetric Double Flat Fan Nozzles against Fusarium Head Blight in Durum Wheat
by Filip Vučajnk, Valentina Spanic, Stanislav Trdan, Iztok Jože Košir, Miha Ocvirk and Matej Vidrih
Agriculture 2024, 14(3), 343; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14030343 - 21 Feb 2024
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Abstract
Four types of nozzles were tested on large-scale trials with a 40 m2 plot unit size. The Avi Twin 110-01 (80 L ha−1), 110-02 (160 L ha−1), 110-03 (240 L ha−1), and 110-04 (320 L ha [...] Read more.
Four types of nozzles were tested on large-scale trials with a 40 m2 plot unit size. The Avi Twin 110-01 (80 L ha−1), 110-02 (160 L ha−1), 110-03 (240 L ha−1), and 110-04 (320 L ha−1) symmetric double fan injector nozzles were tested during the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 growing seasons. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of spray nozzles with regard to deoxynivalenol (DON) accumulation in durum wheat grains. Artificial inoculation with Fusarium spp. was performed after durum heads were protected with fungicide. The percentage of heads covered with fungicide droplets, grain yield, yield-related traits, technological quality parameters, and concentrations of DON were determined. Compared to the control (without fungicide treatment), the Avi Twin 04 nozzle caused a reduction of 45.0% in the DON concentration on average across both growing seasons. This positively corresponded to the percentage of heads covered with fungicide droplets, which was highest when this nozzle was utilized. In both trial years, the DON reduction caused by the 110-04 twin nozzle was higher than that caused by the 110-01 nozzle. Treatment with the 110-04 nozzle more effectively improved the grain yield, 1000-kernel weight, and test weight compared to treatment with the 110-01 nozzle and the untreated control. The differences in technological quality were less pronounced when different spray nozzles were used. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Breeding Cereals for Improved Agronomic and Quality Traits under Adverse Environmental Conditions)
17 pages, 988 KiB  
Article
Effects of Recurrent Selection on Population Structure and Allele Frequencies in the M3S Maize Population
by Miroslav Bukan, Ana Mandić, Vinko Kozumplik, Ramsey S. Lewis, Domagoj Šimić and Hrvoje Šarčević
Agriculture 2024, 14(1), 49; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14010049 - 27 Dec 2023
Viewed by 692
Abstract
The effects of four cycles of recurrent selection on the allele frequencies of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and population structure were examined in the Maksimir 3 Synthetic (M3S) maize population (Zea mays L.). Genotyping of 32 plants from each selection cycle [...] Read more.
The effects of four cycles of recurrent selection on the allele frequencies of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and population structure were examined in the Maksimir 3 Synthetic (M3S) maize population (Zea mays L.). Genotyping of 32 plants from each selection cycle at 38 SSR loci revealed that the mean number of alleles per locus and the mean expected heterozygosity were preserved across selection cycles, indicating the maintenance of sufficient genetic variability in the population required for future genetic gain. The Waples test of selective neutrality revealed that genetic drift was the main force in changing allele frequencies in the population. The proportion of selectively non-neutral loci in single cycles of selection varied between 16% and 37%. Some non-neutral loci shared the same genomic locations with previously published QTLs controlling important agronomic traits. An analysis of molecular variance revealed that 5.6% of the genetic variation occurred among and 94.4% within cycle populations. Between 5% and 29% of loci were found to be in a significant Hardy–Weinberg (HW) disequilibrium, with the majority showing an excess of homozygosity. The excess of homozygosity at several loci was highly consistent across cycle populations, suggesting positive assortative mating as a possible cause of the observed HW disequilibrium. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) tests revealed that the M3S population was essentially in linkage equilibrium. The proportion of pairs of loci in significant LD varied from 0.1% to 1.8% across selection cycles, probably due to the effects of genetic drift and epistatic selection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Breeding Cereals for Improved Agronomic and Quality Traits under Adverse Environmental Conditions)
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