Crop Wild Relatives Crosses: Multi-Location Assessment in Durum Wheat, Barley, and Lentil

Crop wild relatives (CWR) are a good source of useful alleles for climate change adaptation.
Here, 19 durum wheat, 24 barley, and 24 lentil elites incorporating CWR in their pedigrees were yield
tested against commercial checks across 19 environments located in Morocco, Ethiopia, Lebanon, and
Senegal. For each crop, the combined analysis of variance showed that genotype (G), environment
(E), and genotype x environment (GxE) effects were significant for most of the traits. A selection
index combining yield potential (G) and yield stability (GxE) was used to identify six CWR-derived
elites for each crop matching or superior to the best check. A regression analysis using a climate
matrix revealed that grain yield was mostly influenced by the maximum daily temperature and soil
moisture level during the growing stages. These climatic factors were used to define five clusters
(i.e., E1 to E5) of mega-environments. The CWR-derived elites significantly outperformed the checks
in E1, E2, and E4 for durum wheat, and in E2 for both barley and lentil. The germplasm was also
assessed for several food transformation characteristics. For durum wheat, one accession (Zeina)
originating from T. araraticum was significantly superior in mixograph score to the best check, and
three accessions originating from T. araraticum and T. urartu were superior for Zn concentration. For
barley, 21 accessions originating from H. spontaneum were superior to the checks for protein content,
six for Zn content, and eight for -glucan. For lentil, ten accessions originating from Lens orientalis
were superior to the check for protein content, five for Zn, and ten for Fe concentration. Hence, the
results presented here strongly support the use of CWR in breeding programs of these three dryland
crops, both for adaptation to climatic stresses and for value addition for food transformation.