Breaking yield barriers in wheat -- new plant type designed

摘要

To achieve a quantum jump in wheat productivity in India, there is a need to design a new plant type combining negatively correlated yield components in a single genotype of very high yield potential. In this endeavor, a new plant type combining two negatively correlated traits (high tiller numbers with high grain weight and high grain weight with high grain number per ear) has been successfully developed resulting in significantly high yield. The second phase advanced generation materials, in pipeline, have optimum combination of all three yield components and carry alien genes (Lr24/Sr24) for resistance to leaf, stem, and stripe rusts giving further boost to yield potential. The newly designed plant type has characteristic features of moderate tillering (375 per m~2 and above), all productive tillers, 50 and above grains per spike, grain weight between 45 and 50 g per 1000 grains, higher biomass, dark green, thick and broad leaves, thick stem, maturity duration between 120 to 135 days and plant height between 85 and 100 cm.