Wheat Improvement

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-lii

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2. Background

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Wheat Improvement

      • Matthew P. Reynolds, Hans-Joachim Braun

      Pages 3-15Open Access

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   3. History of Wheat Breeding: A Personal View

      • R. A. Tony Fischer

      Pages 17-30Open Access

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   4. Defining Target Wheat Breeding Environments

      • Leonardo A. Crespo-Herrera, José Crossa, Mateo Vargas, Hans-Joachim Braun

      Pages 31-45Open Access

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   5. Global Trends in Wheat Production, Consumption and Trade

      • Olaf Erenstein, Moti Jaleta, Khondoker Abdul Mottaleb, Kai Sonder, Jason Donovan, Hans-Joachim Braun

      Pages 47-66Open Access

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3. Delivering Improved Germplasm

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 67-67

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   2. Breeding Methods: Line Development

      • Jessica E. Rutkoski, Margaret R. Krause, Mark E. Sorrells

      Pages 69-82Open Access

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   3. Breeding Methods: Population Improvement and Selection Methods

      • Jessica E. Rutkoski, Margaret R. Krause, Mark E. Sorrells

      Pages 83-96Open Access

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   4. Achieving Genetic Gains in Practice

      • Ravi P. Singh, Philomin Juliana, Julio Huerta-Espino, Velu Govindan, Leonardo A. Crespo-Herrera, Suchismita Mondal et al.

      Pages 97-123Open Access

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   5. Wheat Rusts: Current Status, Prospects of Genetic Control and Integrated Approaches to Enhance Resistance Durability

      • Sridhar Bhavani, Ravi P. Singh, David P. Hodson, Julio Huerta-Espino, Mandeep Singh Randhawa

      Pages 125-141Open Access

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   6. Globally Important Non-rust Diseases of Wheat

      • Xinyao He, Navin C. Gahtyari, Chandan Roy, Abdelfattah A. Dababat, Gurcharn Singh Brar, Pawan Kumar Singh

      Pages 143-158Open Access

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   7. Abiotic Stresses

      • Richard M. Trethowan

      Pages 159-175Open Access

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   8. Wheat Quality

      • Carlos Guzmán, Maria Itria Ibba, Juan B. Álvarez, Mike Sissons, Craig Morris

      Pages 177-193Open Access

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   9. Nutritionally Enhanced Wheat for Food and Nutrition Security

      • Velu Govindan, Kristina D. Michaux, Wolfgang H. Pfeiffer

      Pages 195-214Open Access

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   10. Experimental Design for Plant Improvement

       • Ky L. Mathews, José Crossa

       Pages 215-235Open Access

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   11. Seed Systems to Support Rapid Adoption of Improved Varieties in Wheat

       • Arun Kumar Joshi, Hans-Joachim Braun

       Pages 237-256Open Access

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   12. Crop Management for Breeding Trials

       • Nora Honsdorf, Jelle Van Loon, Bram Govaerts, Nele Verhulst

       Pages 257-274Open Access

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4. Translational Research to Incorporate Novel Traits

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 275-275

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   2. A Century of Cytogenetic and Genome Analysis: Impact on Wheat Crop Improvement

      • Bikram S. Gill

      Pages 277-297Open Access

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This open-access textbook provides a comprehensive, up-to-date guide for students and practitioners wishing to access in a single volume the key disciplines and principles of wheat breeding. Wheat is a cornerstone of food security: it is the most widely grown of any crop and provides 20% of all human calories and protein. The authorship of this book includes world class researchers and breeders whose expertise spans cutting-edge academic science all the way to impacts in farmers’ fields. The book’s themes and authors were selected to provide a didactic work that considers the background to wheat improvement, current mainstream breeding approaches, and translational research and avant garde technologies that enable new breakthroughs in science to impact productivity. While the volume provides an overview for professionals interested in wheat, many of the ideas and methods presented are equally relevant to small grain cereals and crop improvement in general. The book is affordable, and because it is open access, can be readily shared and translated -- in whole or in part -- to university classes, members of breeding teams (from directors to technicians), conference participants, extension agents and farmers. Given the challenges currently faced by academia, industry and national wheat programs to produce higher crop yields --- often with less inputs and under increasingly harsher climates -- this volume is a timely addition to their toolkit.

• crop breeding
• breeding technologies
• genetic gains
• crop yield potential
• wheat pathology
• global economics of wheat
• agriculture public-private parternship
• open access

• Wheat Physiology, Global Wheat program, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Texcoco, Mexico

  Matthew P. Reynolds

• Global Wheat program, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Texcoco, Mexico

  Hans-Joachim Braun

Matthew Reynolds (m.reynolds@cgiar.org) is Distinguished Scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and alumnus of Oxford (BA), Reading (MS) and Cornell (PhD) Universities. He currently leads the Wheat Physiology lab at CIMMYT, and serves on the management committee of the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture, as well as leading its community of practice for crop modelling. His pioneering work in phenomics and in physiological breeding have helped widen the spring wheat genepool and increased understanding of yield potential and adaptation of wheat to drought and heat stress. He has been active in developing global collaborations to tap into expertise of plant scientists worldwide –such as the International Wheat Yield Partnership and the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium, with the view to underpinning food security through crop improvement with a special focus on the Global South. He has published widely in the areas of cropphysiology, genomics and pre-breeding and has been included in the top 1%, of the world's researchers since 2018 -most recently across plant and animal sciences- by Web of Science. He has honorary positions at Nottingham, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma State Universities and is board member of the Global Plant Council. He is Fellow of both the Crop Science Society of America and the American Society of Agronomy and was appointed to the Mexican Academy of Science in 2018.


Hans-Joachim Braun, a native of Germany with background in wheat breeding has led CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program from 2004 until 2020, when he retired. He was responsible for technical direction and implementation of the program and lead and managed 40 internationally recruited scientists, who develop wheat germplasm that is distributed to around 200 cooperators in more than 100 countries and grown of more than 50% of the spring wheat area in developing countries. During his 37 years in International Agriculture, he became familiar with all major wheat based systems globally. He lived from 1985 to 2005 in Turkey, leading the Turkey CIMMYT ICARDA International Winter Wheat Improvement Program. He contributed to the development of more than 40 winter wheat varieties released mainly in West and Central Asia, which are grown on more than 2 million ha. Braun was instrumental in recognizing Zn deficiency and soil borne diseases as a major constraint for winter wheat production in the dryland areas of West Asia. He has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and received various awards, including the Friendship Award of China for his contribution to develop disease resistant wheat lines for Gansu province, the Crop Science of America Fellowship Award and the International Agronomy Award of the American Society of Agronomy. Braun received his Ph.D. from the University of Hohenheim, Germany in 1983.

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