Evaluation of Crossing Methods in Breeding Point of View of Common Wheat Triticum aestivum L.

K. KOSTOV

Institute for Wheat and Sunflower “Dobroudja”, BG-9520 General Toshevo, Bulgaria

Abstract

KOSTOV, K., 2000. Evaluation of crossing methods in breeding point of view of common wheat Triticum aestivum L. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 6: 139-146

The objective of this study is to investigate performance in populations involving different number of parents and different types of crosses (single, three-way, backcross, and double way) between common winter wheat cultivars and lines (Triticum aestivum L.) to create new advance lines with high yielding potential, good adaptability and good trichome profiles. The most successful crossing method in Bulgarian wheat breeding programs for the last ten years was single cross, 74.2% from all released cultivars were developed used single cross type. The coefficient of variation was higher in the case of double way crosses as compared to parents, single, backcross and three-way crosses for plant height, number of kernels per spike, seeds weight per main spike, 1000 kernel weight, grain yield per square meter, number of productive tillers per square meter, harvest index and trichome length. The variance of trichome length and density are significant for backcross. For trichome density different crosses show significant variance and mean performance. The mean performance of three-way crosses was improved for main spike length, number of kernels per spike, 1000 – kernel weight and number of productive tillers. Double way crosses provide more opportunity for selecting superior recombination with good traits certainly with more patience. Environmental condition and difference of parents need to be taken care of in performance selection from such complex populations.

Key words: Triticum aestivum; wheat breeding; type of crosses; cross populations; genetic variations; yield components; trichome profiles
Abbreviations: S_1¸8 – single crosses; T_1¸4 – three-way crosses; B_5¸8 backcross; D_1¸6 double (four-way) crosses; GT – wheat lines developed in IWS 'Dobroudja' – General Toshevo