1. 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

2. “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

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

4. 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,
The benefits of Plant Variety Protection seminar, 20 September 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria

5. 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 …

6. 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

7. 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
= YEARS
Parents identification
During 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

8. 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 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

9. 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

10. 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

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

12. F1 – F6
Breeding approach F2
F2 – very small population size/cross (only 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. Some of the registered varieties
Registration
Some of the registered varieties

17. 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 ( 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