Phenotyping complex traits of drought and heat tolerance for future climate-resilient German wheat
Plant Breeding and Plant Pathology
Final Report Abstract
Climate change is expected to influence crop growth through frequent drought and heat extremes, and thus, drought and heat tolerance are of increasing importance as major breeding goals for cereal crops in Central Europe. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive field evaluation under drier and warmer conditions in Moldova to provide reliable traits of drought and heat tolerance of German wheat varieties and to exploit new genetic resources from existing East European wheat cultivars already adapted to drought/heat. The results elucidated that, among all wheat varieties tested in Moldova, Eastern European varieties and German hybrids achieved the best yield performance across the years. The lower grain yield of German wheat varieties was mainly due to the reduction in grain filling duration, resulting in a decrease in the grain filling rate and thousand-grain weight. A higher grain filling rate contributing to a higher grain yield of the Eastern European varieties may indicate that welladapted varieties with faster development and an earlier start of grain filling have a strong advantage under drought and heat conditions and provide a useful genetic source for future plant breeding programs for heat and drought tolerance. The results of carbon isotope discrimination (CID) showed a strong correlation between CID and grain yield and heritability, suggesting that CID can be used as a selection criterion for drought tolerance. Irrigation in autumn favorably increased yields of all cultivars and German hybrids. Regarding the high throughput sensing, we recommend that the short duration of measurements, easy repeatability, and high heritability of the data promote UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) as a possible tool for breeders’ decisions in field trials. However, there is a need to have high-resolution cameras.
Publications
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Hochdurchsatz-Phänotypisierung von Weizen unter Hitze- und Trockenstress mit Hilfe von UAVs. 38. Wissenschaftlich-Technische Jahrestagung der DGPF München, Germany. Published in Publikationen der DGPF, Volume 27 (Oral presentation)
Kunz K., Hu Y., Schmidhalter U.
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Phenotyping of Wheat in Heat- and Drought-Stressed Environments Using UAVs. International Scientific Conference "Towards Sustainable Agriculture – What is missing?”, Bălți, Republic of Moldova (Oral presentation).
Kunz, Karolin; Hu, Yuncai; Boincean, Boris; Postalatii, Alexei & Schmidhalter, Urs
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Productive Potential and its Stability to the Common Wheat Varieties of Different Ecological-Geographical Origin. Akademos, 2 (53).
Postolatii A.; Kunz K & Rudoi M.
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2020) Using UAV Measurements to Phenotype Drought and Heat Stress in Wheat. Interdrought VI 2020, Mexico-City, Mexico (Poster)
Kunz K., Hu Y., Boincean B., Postolatii A., Schmidhalter U.
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Impact of elevated CO2 and heat stress on wheat pollen viability and grain production. Functional Plant Biology, 48(5), 503.
Bokshi, Anowarul I.; Tan, Daniel K. Y.; Thistlethwaite, Rebecca J.; Trethowan, Richard & Kunz, Karolin
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Partitioning and Translocation of Dry Matter and Nitrogen During Grain Filling in Spring Barley Varieties and Their Roles in Determining Malting Quality. Frontiers in Plant Science, 12 (2021, 8, 23).
Barmeier, Gero; Hu, Yuncai & Schmidhalter, Urs
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Phenotyping of Wheat in Heat- and Drought-Stressed Environments Using UAVs. Regenerative Agriculture (2021), 251-259. American Geophysical Union (AGU).
Kunz, Karolin; Hu, Yuncai; Boincean, Boris; Postalatii, Alexei & Schmidhalter, Urs
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Carbon isotope discrimination as a key physiological trait to phenotype drought/heat resistance of future climate-resilient German winter wheat compared with relative leaf water content and canopy temperature. Frontiers in Plant Science, 13 (2022, 11, 30).
Kunz, Karolin; Hu, Yuncai & Schmidhalter, Urs
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Opportunity and challenges of phenotyping plant salt tolerance. Trends in Plant Science, 28(5), 552-566.
Hu, Yuncai & Schmidhalter, Urs
