The contribution of distant hybridization with decaploid Agropyron elongatum to wheat improvement in China

Wheat is a staple food crop in the world as well as in China. Because of the progress of wheat breeding and other agricultural ＂sci-technologies, the wheat grain yield per unit area has increased more than five folds from 1952 to 2006 in China. The first part of this article briefly reviews the history of wheat breeding in China. Second, the establishment of ＂Triticum aestivum-Agropyron＂ distant hybridization system and its contribution to wheat production and breeding in China are summarized. Finally, the future challenges of wheat breeding are discussed, which include how to increase the utilization efficiencies of water, soil nutrient and light energy through breeding. As an example, our research progress on how to increase light use efficiency in wheat through breeding is introduced and discussed.

CRISPR-mediated acceleration of wheat improvement:advances and perspectives

Common wheat(Triticum aestivum)is one of the most widely cultivated and consumed crops globally.In the face of limited arable land and climate changes,it is a great challenge to maintain current and increase future wheat production.Enhancing agronomic traits in wheat by introducing mutations across all three homoeologous copies of each gene has proven to be a difficult task due to its large genome with high repetition.However,clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat(CRISPR)/CRISPR-associ-ated nuclease(Cas)genome editing technologies offer a powerful means of precisely manipulating the genomes of crop species,thereby opening up new possibilities for biotechnology and breeding.In this review,we first focus on the development and optimization of the current CRISPR-based genome editing tools in wheat,emphasizing recent breakthroughs in precise and multiplex genome editing.We then describe the general procedure of wheat genome editing and highlight different methods to deliver the genome editing reagents into wheat cells.Furthermore,we summarize the recent applications and ad-vancements of CRISPR/Cas technologies for wheat improvement.Lastly,we discuss the remaining chal-lenges specific to wheat genome editing and its future prospects.

A Unique Aegilops tauschii Genotype Needless to Immature Embryo Culture in Cross with Wheat

Common or bread wheat ( Triticum aestivum L., AABBDD, 2n=42) originated ca. 8 000 years ago from hybridization of tetraploid wheat ( Triticum turgidum L., AABB, 2n=28) and diploid Aegilops tauschii Coss. (DD, 2n=14). An essential prerequisite for this evolutionary step is that the natural hybrids between tetraploid wheat and diploid Aegilops tauschii can produce relatively many filled seeds which germinated well. In this study, without special techniques, e.g. immature embryo culture, out of 22 Ae. tauschii accessions, the genotype AS60 produced relatively many filled seeds which germinated well. The seed germination percentages in the crosses of Ae. tauschii ×tetraploid wheat, tetraploid wheat× Ae. tauschii and Ae. tauschii ×common wheat were, respectively, 50.0%, 57.1% and 45.5%. It seems that Ae. tauschii accession AS60 has a unique genotype which facilitate hybrid seed development and viability, and which meets with the prerequisite for wheat evolutionary. Furthermore, the significance of this finding for common wheat improvement and evolution was discussed.

Contribution of ear photosynthesis to grain yield under rainfed and irrigation conditions for winter wheat cultivars released in the past 30 years in North China Plain

To understand the contribution of ear photosynthesis to grain yield and its response to water supply in the improvement of winter wheat, 15 cultivars released from 1980 to 2012 in North China Plain（NCP） were planted under rainfed and irrigated conditions from 2011 to 2013, and the ear photosynthesis was tested by ear shading. During the past 30 years, grain yield significantly increased, the flag leaf area slightly increased under irrigated condition but decreased significantly under rainfed condition, the ratio of grain weight：leaf area significantly increased, and the contribution of ear photosynthesis to grain yield changed from 33.6 to 64.5% and from 32.2 to 57.2% under rainfed and irrigated conditions, respectively. Grain yield, yield components, and ratio of grain weight：leaf area were positively related with contribution of ear photosynthesis. The increase in grain yield in winter wheat was related with improvement in ear photosynthesis contribution in NCP, especially under rainfed condition.