Scientific foundations of combining stress tolerance, grain yield and quality in triticale breeding under global climate change

Abstract

The article analyzes priority tasks of triticale breeding under global climate change, with emphasis on combining drought and heat tolerance with high and stable grain yield and quality in a single genotype. Biological and breeding advantages of triticale as a synthetic cereal combining wheat and rye genomes, phenotypic plasticity under stress, genotype × environment interaction and criteria for donor selection are discussed. The breeding value of phenology, plant height, thousand-kernel weight, grain number per spike, yield, protein content and test weight is considered. Integration of multi-environment phenotyping with molecular-genetic approaches is proposed as a conceptual basis for a DSc research program.