Wheat breeding challenges and opportunities in the Balkan region Borislav KOBILJSKI, Gojko MLADENOVIĆ, Zorica JESTROVIĆ BIOGRANUM, NOVI SAD, SERBIA The benefits of Plant Variety Protection seminar, 20 September 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria

“Historical breeding” Yield stagnation? “Green revolution” “Historical breeding” Wrong breeding objectives (“triple best”)? Lack of technology? Climate change impact ? … The benefits of Plant Variety Protection seminar, 20 September 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria

Some of the news articles in 2018 “Baltic Disaster” “Drenched France” “Baked Britain and Poland” …

Main climate change challenges apparent in the Balkan region Non-typical seasonal distribution of rainfall (winter/spring + flooding/drought) Extreme heat waves combined with severe drought Increased overall seasonal and monthly temperatures + daily/weekly extremes! While the challenges are great – so are the opportunities. — Bill Ford Kobiljski, B. and Denčić, S., 2001: Global climate change - challenge for breeding and seed production of major field crops. J. Genet. and Breeding, Vol. 55, 83-90. The benefits of Plant Variety Protection seminar, 20 September 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria

MAIN CHALLENGE – CLIMATE CHANGE POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Introduction of new genetic variability by combining advanced genepools (varieties and lines) from WEST and EAST Lower tillering ability High grain weight Very good - excellent technological quality Excellent tolerance to low temperatures Drought and heat stress tolerance Slightly lower, but stable yields … High tillering ability High grain number per unit area Strong stem Excellent disease tolerance Drought and heat stress sensitivity Higher, but unstable yields …

Wheat breeding for the Balkan region Opportunities to be exploited from newly created genetic variability TRAITS TECHNOLOGIES Seasonal type? High or low inputs? High or low tillering? Tall or short wheat? Plant architecture? Water and nitrogen use efficiency? Disease tolerance? Harvest and spike indexes? Drought and/or heat tolerance? Pre-harvest sprouting? Yield variability or stability? Yield or quality? … Marker-assisted selection Double haploid production Speed breeding … The benefits of Plant Variety Protection seminar, 20 September 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria

Conventional breeding program paradigm Parents evaluation Crossing F1 – F6 Trials Registration Commercial-ization 2-3 YEARS 1 YEAR 6 YEARS 2 or more YEARS 2 YEARS = 12-14 YEARS Parents identification During 1993-2018 field and lab screening of 29,000 wheat genotypes (up to 50 traits annually). After field evaluation, a subset of 96 „most promising“ parents has been screened with 34 SSR’s markers linked to Lr, Pm, Yr, FHB, Rht, PHS, HI, SI, HD, yield and yield related components, etc. The benefits of Plant Variety Protection seminar, 20 September 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria

Parents evaluation Allele distribution in microsatellite locus Xgwm 261 in 96 parent genotypes (192 = Rht8; 174 = Western Europe; 164 = “CIMMYT” allele) genotype allele 1 192 21 41 61 81 164 2 22 42 62 82 174 3 23 43 63 83 4 24 44 KWS Quality 194 84 5 25 45 65 85 6 26 46 66 86 7 27 47 67 87 8 28 48 68 88 9 29 49 69 89 10 30 50 70 BG Ikona 2S 214 11 31 51 71 91 12 32 52 72 92 13 NS Sonata 196 53 73 93 14 34 54 74 94 15 35 55 75 95 16 36 56 76 96 17 37 57 77 18 38 58 78 Range 164-214 19 39 59 79 20 40 60 80 Data obtained in field and with MM is being used for the „fine tuning“ of parents to be used for specific crosses targeting TKW, gluten composition, heading and flowering time, … The benefits of Plant Variety Protection seminar, 20 September 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria

Breeding approach to exploit opportunities Crossing Breeding approach to exploit opportunities In 2013 – 2018 period, a total of 6500 crosses were made The benefits of Plant Variety Protection seminar, 20 September 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria

Breeding approach F1 3rd row, hybrid necrosis 3rd row, early and tall F1 – F6 3rd row, hybrid necrosis Large number of crosses (up to 2000/year) F1 – spike/row system “Ex”- due to H. necrosis and other poor performances All other F1’s go to F2, but the most promising ones are marked for future „more careful“ selection of F2 - at multiple locations 3rd row, early and tall 4th row, early and short The benefits of Plant Variety Protection seminar, 20 September 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria

Multilocation selection in F2 F1 – F6 Multilocation selection in F2 The benefits of Plant Variety Protection seminar, 20 September 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria

F1 – F6 Breeding approach F2 F2 – very small population size/cross (only 400-500 plants) “Ex” – due to undesirable overall seasonal performance Selection is based on an ideotype with traits relevant for Balkan region climate change challenges! The very best (up to 10%) of total crosses tested go to F3 (about 200 crosses). From these 200 crosses, single spikes are selected from a subset of about 20 crosses („top of the top“) for production of DH lines. The benefits of Plant Variety Protection seminar, 20 September 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria

Yield potential of the very first set of DH lines produced F1 – F6 Yield potential of the very first set of DH lines produced 23 crosses 245 DH lines produced Average yield (t/ha) Lowest yield (t/ha) Highest yield (t/ha) In registration EU In registration Serbia Cross 13 4 6.2 5.7 6.5 Cross 20 2 6.7 Cross 3 6 5.1 6.8 Cross 18 7 6.3 5 7.8 Cross 16 7.7 8.1 Cross 15 12 4.3 8.3 Cross 17 21 3.7 8.5 Cross 14 11 7.3 5.8 9.0 Cross 21 7.4 5.5 Cross 4 4.5 9.1 ® ® 2nd year ® 2nd year Cross 1 8 7.2 5.3 9.2 Cross 19 6.6 9.6 Cross 10 9 9.7 Cross 23 22 5.4 9.8 Cross 2 10.0 Cross 8 13 8.8 6.9 10.3 Cross 9 10.4 Cross 22 26 3.5 10.5 Cross 12 10.6 Cross 6 10.7 Cross 11 29 8.9 10.8 Cross 7 7.1 10.9 Cross 5 3 12.3 12.5 Standard 1 Standard 2 8.4 Standard 3 Please note, targeted number of DH lines per cross is only about 30. The benefits of Plant Variety Protection seminar, 20 September 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria

F1 – F6 Breeding approach F3-F6 If “breath-taking” offspring is identified, selection of individual spikes in F3 is also applied to be used for DH production For the rest of material conventional selection is applied The benefits of Plant Variety Protection seminar, 20 September 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria

Registration Breeding for technological quality – lines in official registration trials for EU list Line Status Protein content Starch Wet gluten Sedimentation Test weight Line 1 Registered 12.9 69.1 26.1 32.2 85.3 Line 2 14.3 68.3 30.4 46.5 86.1 Line 3 11.1 69.4 20.2 22.4 82.2 Line 4 10.6 73.0 19.7 17.2 84.2 Line 5 15.2 66.8 32.9 50.5 86.4 Line 6 13.8 68.7 29.7 41.9 88.9 Line 7 11.8 70.1 23.0 22.3 83.2 Line 8 10.5 70.9 18.7 18.1 82.3 Line 9 13.5 69.3 27.9 38.8 86.3 Line 10 2nd year 12.2 69.2 23.8 24.9 85.8 Line 11 71.6 21.3 19.5 83.4 Line 12 10.9 19.9 81.2 Line 13 10.8 71.3 19.6 83.6 Line 14 11.7 70.8 22.7 24.2 83.9 Line 15 12.5 69.9 25.3 29.9 85.5 Line 16 70.0 27.2 32.8 89.3 Line 17 12.0 23.3 23.6 83.0 Line 18 13.3 69.0 27.8 37.4 84.6 Line 19 11.4 21.4 22.1 Line 20 14.8 66.7 32.1 51.8 87.2 Line 21 67.7 29.2 36.9 Line 22 12.1 71.7 24.7 26.4 85.6 The benefits of Plant Variety Protection seminar, 20 September 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria

Some of the registered varieties Registration Some of the registered varieties

Our approach to challenge the climate change in Balkan region Creation of novel variability that combines the elite and best from East and West Use of MM at the very beginning of the breeding program (parents evaluation) Produce huge number of crosses (2000 per year) Use a very small population size/cross in F2 (400-500 plants) Perform extremely high selection pressure against undesirable traits Produce DH lines from F2 and/or F3 Creation of varieties with very good to excellent technological quality, which will be more tolerant to pre-harvest sprouting and reduction of test weight due to frequent rains at harvest time FOR THE BALKAN REGION THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION !!! The benefits of Plant Variety Protection seminar, 20 September 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria