CResWheat- Pre-breeding for Nordic climate resilient spring wheat

The CResWheat project aims to promote the development of climate resilient spring wheat adapted for the Nordic region. A pre-survey will be conducted to gain knowledge on pathogen virulence variation in rusts and leaf blotch diseases, resistance genes against these and markers available to breeders for accelerating breeding efforts. Germplasm will be screened for diseases identified as important for the Nordic region such as brown-, yellow- and black (stem) rust, Septoria leaf blotch and tan spot, and for agronomically important traits such as earliness, pre-harvest sprouting and yield components. Association mapping will be done to identify markers linked to these traits. To prepare for the future, breeding lines will be evaluated for drought tolerance using automated technology allowing for daily non-invasive phenotyping under controlled conditions. Metabolite analysis will be performed for the purpose to dissect the growth, physiology, and flag leaf chemistry of wheat in response to drought stress. Based on the outcome of the activities, parents will be selected and used to develop biparental populations for further use in a subsequent PPP project.