Identification of durum wheat germplasm with fast dry down characteristics for early harvest durum breeding
Term: 3 years, starting in 2020
Status: Ongoing
Funding Amount: $101,991
Lead Researcher(s): Dr. Jatinder Sangha (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Swift Current)
Funding Partners: Alberta Wheat Commission, Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture -Agriculture Development Fund (ADF)
Project Description
The main focus of this project is to characterize and identify a durum wheat line with the stable shortest dry down period in combination with agronomic, disease resistance and quality traits that could be used to develop early harvesting breeding populations.
The timely harvest of a healthy crop brings in desirable returns to the producers. However, harvesting is often difficult to achieve especially on the Canadian prairies, due to a short growing season and unpredictable weather conditions during harvest. This could be minimized with the existence of varieties with fast dry down characteristics. Currently, limited information is available for durum wheat with regards to dry down characteristics, i.e. the time period between physiological and harvesting maturity. Therefore, in-depth physiological measurements will be required to characterize the durum germplasm for physiological maturity and harvest maturity, which will enable the development of varieties with the fast dry-down characteristic for the producers.
This project builds on the preliminary work initiated by the research team on the screening of large durum germplasm and has identified few promising lines with the range between 2.5-11 days for the dry-down duration. Detailed information on physiological mechanisms involved during grain filling and maturation such as water dynamics and dry matter properties of the developing kernel, post-anthesis rate of grain fill, and dry matter/moisture ratio will be measured to differentiate physiological maturity and identify germplasm for rapid dry down potential along with good agronomic and quality traits.
Improving fast dry down of Canadian durum wheat will influence grain quality and end-use functionality that will help producers and industry partners to continue to expand the global market, benefiting the Saskatchewan agricultural industry.