This document describes a project to generate new wheat germplasm with enhanced drought and heat tolerance using genetic diversity from AB genomes. The project analyzed genetic diversity in emmer wheat collections, developed new synthetic hexaploid wheat (SHW) from emmer wheat, and generated new SHW, synthetic backcross lines (SBL), and bread wheat lines by crossing emmer wheat with elite bread wheat. Key achievements included establishing emmer wheat germplasm collections, generating new genetically diverse SHW and SBL materials, and building capacity for marker-assisted breeding in India. Future work proposed phenotyping materials under drought and heat and publishing results.

1. Satish Chandra Misra
Agharkar Research Institute
Pune 411 004, India
Generating new wheat germplasm with
enhanced drought / heat tolerance using AB
genomes genetic diversity
GCP 3008:01
(2008 - 2011)

2. Agharkar Research Institute, Pune (India)
S.C.Misra , Sujata Tetali, S.A. Tamhankar
CIMMYT, Mexico
D. Bonnett, M. Zaharieva, J. Crossa and T. Payne
Plant Breeding Institute, Sydney, Australia
R.Trethowan and P. Sharp
University of Agriculture Scienes, Dharwad
(India)
R .R. Hanchinal, I. Kalappanaar, A. S. Desai
K.K. Math and B. N. Yenagi
Collaborating institutes…….

3. Project rationale…….
AABBDD
DDAABB
Global food demand increasing, no increase in
area. Abiotic stresses posing problems for
increasing wheat productivity.
Abiotic stress are difficult to address genetically
as insufficient diversity exists in the current gene
pool
Synthetic hexaploid wheat, derived by crossing
emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum L. subsp.
dicoccon (Schrank) Thell. with Aegilops
tauschii (donor of D genome of hexaploid
wheat), provides new genetic variability for
adaptation to drought, high temperature,
salinity, water logging and soil micronutrient
imbalances of bread wheat.
Genetic diversity : higher within cultivated emmer
wheat (Triticum dicoccon Schrank) than within
durum wheat.

4. Analyze diversity in emmer wheat
Develop new SHW from diverse emmer
wheats
Combine Emmer and Durum wheat based
SHW diversity
Obtain new SBL from emmer based SHW
and local elite bread wheat
Combine emmer and bread wheat AB genome
diversity from their crosses
Objectives…….

5. Strategy …….
Emmer wheat composite set
DNA extraction and diversity
analysis
Emmer wheat reference set Ae. tauschii
SHW Elite Bread wheat
BC1F1
BC1F2..4
SBL
ARI and UAS,
Dharwad
CIMMYT and
PBI
Work done
CIMMYT

6. Strategy …….
Emmer based SHW 1. Durum based SHW
2. Emmer based SHW
F1 (Feb 2010 onwards )
F2 (June 2010)
F3 ( Nov 2010)
F4
Elite BW
SBL
Field Evaluation,
Diversity analysis – SSR markers, DArT analysis
ARI Pune
& UAS
Dharwad
Emmer wheat
Emmer: backcross
Derivatives BW

7. 1. Genetic diversity studies from emmer
wheat by SSR markers, DArT analysis.
2. Development new SHW.
3. Development of new SBL by crossing
emmer wheat based SHW with local elite
bread wheat
4. Development of new bread wheat lines by
crossing of emmer wheat with elite bread
wheat followed and back crossing
Steps followed …….

8. .
Dicoccum accessions summary by country and grouping of
countries by region.
Region Abbreviation Countries (number of accessions) Total
accessions
Abyssinia ABS Ethiopia (47), Eritrea (1) 48
Arabian
Peninsula
ARP Oman (4), Saudi Arabia (1), Yemen (5) 10
Balkans BKN Bulgaria (3), Bosnia-Herzegovina (3), Greece (2),
Montenegro (4), Serbia (12)
24
Central and
Northern
Europe
CNE Switzerland (2), Czech Republic (3), Germany (5),
Hungary (3), Poland (2), Romania (2), Slovakia (1),
United Kingdom (1)
19
Iberian
Peninsula
IBP Spain (18), Portugal (3) 21
Iran IRN Iran (32) 32
Indian
Subcontinent
ISC Afghanistan (2), India (20) 22
Italy ITA Italy (22) 22
North Africa NA Morocco (5), Tunisia (2) 7
Near East NE Syria (22), Turkey (9) 35
North-Eastern
Europe
NEE Belarus (3), Ukraine (4) 7
Russia RUS Dagestan (8), Russia (19) China (1) 28
Transcaucasia TCA Armenia (11), Azerbaijan (5), Georgia (9) 25 0.1
IRN
NEE
TCA
CNE
BKN
NE
RUS
ISC
ABS
ARP
IBP
ITA
NA
Core Set of 108 lines possess 376 alleles (80%) of the
470 alleles present across the collection.
Genetic Diversity in International collection of Emmer
wheat

9. Dendrogram showing genetic relationships among Indian
emmer wheat accessions based on SSR polymorphism
Genetic Diversity in Indian Emmer wheat
• Low genetic diversity in Indian
Emmer wheats
• Recently developed semidwarf
Emmer wheat showing more
genetic diversity

10. • Worldwide collection of 300 emmer wheat
accessions established
• Reference set of 100 accessions established
based on genetic diversity analysis
• New genetically diverse germplasm with potential
drought/heat tolerance:
- 100 new SHW (emmer wheat x Ae. tauschii)
- 176 new SHW (by inter crossing emmer and
emmer/durum based SHW)
- 1000 double haploid from emmer wheat and
hexaploid wheat
- 800 BC1 F3 : 5 (emmer wheat and bread wheat)
- 367 SBL in advance stages
Achievements …….

11. Publications:
A. Book chapters: 2
1. Philippe Monneveux, Ruilian Jing and SC Misra (2011). Phenotyping wheat for adaptation to
drought. Eds. Philippe Monneveux and Jean Marcel Ribaut in Drought phenotyping in
crops: from theory to practice: Part II.1 Cereals II, 1.2 :Generation Challenge Prgramme,
pp 247-259.
2. S C Misra and P Varghese (2011). Breeding for heat tolerance in wheat, Eds. SS Singh,
RR Hanchinal, Gyanendra Singh, RK Sharma, BS Tyagi, MS Saharan, Indu Sharma
In “WHEAT: Productivity Enchancement under Changing Climate Publishers” Published
by Narosa Publishing house Pvt. Ltd, 105-114
B. Research articles: 2
1. Zaharieva M, Geleta Ayana N, Al Hakimi A, Misra SC, Monneveux P (2010) Cultivated
emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccon Schrank), an old crop with promising future: a review.
Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 57: 937-962.
2. Salunkhe A., Tamhankar S., Tetali S., Zaharieva M., Bonnett D., Trethowan R. and Misra
S. (2012): Molecular genetic diversity analysis in emmer wheat (Triticum dicocconSchrank)
from India Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution (accepted for publication)

12. Expertise and capacity building of
Indian National Programs enhanced for
• Double haploid production
• SHW and SBL development
• Marker-assisted genetic diversity
analysis.
• 2 Ph D students
Human Resource Development

13. Germplasm available:
-Germplasm Collection – CIMMYT
-SHW - CIMMYT, ARI, UAS and PBI
- SBL -CIMMYT, ARI, UAS and PBI
- AB genome introgressions – PBI
Data available:
-passport and genotyping data stored in excel
format, partly uploaded on GCP website
-Passport and phenotyping data partially
available on ICIS
Availability…..

14. All the material collected (emmer
accessions) and developed (SHWs, SBLs,
DHs) under the project by all partner
institutions will be available for further use
by wheat researchers.
End Product Utilization

15. - Seeds of DHs, SHWs and SBLs mostly shared
between project partners
- Develop more SBLs by crossing newly developed SHW
with elite bread wheat
- Genotyping the 1016 DH emmer/bread wheat
developed at PBI
- Phenotyping emmer wheats and the generated SHWs,
SBLs and DHs and estimate emmer contribution and
genetic gains of SBLs and DHs under drought/heat
conditions in India and Australia
- Publish articles on genotyping and phenotyping results
of emmer wheat, SHW and SBLs.
New funds needed !
Next step: