Yield Potential and Bread-Making Quality of Bread Wheat Hybrids Produced Using Genesis, a Chemical Hybridizing Agent

Abstract

One way of increasing wheat yield levels is through the use of hybrids, which allow the exploitation of heterosis to meet increasing global food demands. The development of more effective chemical hybridizing agents (CHA), such as Genesis, has facilitated the production and testing of large numbers of hybrid combinations. This paper examines the relationship between yield potential and bread-making quality traits of spring bread wheat hybrids based on widely adapted, high-yielding parents produced using Genesis. In collaboration with the Monsanto Company, Genesis was used to develop bread wheat hybrids from high yielding, widely adapted CIMMYT advanced lines. Yield trials were conducted under optimum conditions in Cd. Obregon (Yaqui Valley), Sonora, Mexico, during the 1997–98 and 1998–99 growing seasons. Despite the relatively small number of hybrids evaluated, the data indicated that positive heterosis for grain yield exists in CIMMYT bread wheat lines under irrigated conditions. The highest yielding hybrid (10.6 t/ha at 12% moisture content) had a 17% yield advantage over the leading cultivar when data were combined over two years. The highest yielding lines tended to produce the highest yielding hybrids. The bread-making quality of hybrids is important, since it must satisfy the needs of the wheat processing industry. In this study, the bread-making quality of hybrids tended to be intermediate between those of the parents, although both positive and negative heterosis was observed with some hybrids. In general, grain and bread-making quality traits were not adversely affected in a hybrid background.