Advanced Genomics and Breeding Tools to Accelerate the Development of Climate Resilient Wheat

Knowledge-based breeding to develop high-yielding wheat cultivars is the key to keep pace with increasing food demand, not only in optimal but also in stressed conditions. Resilience to climate extremes and variability has become one of the most important crop breeding targets. Genomics will play an important role to uncover the basis of adaptability to heat, drought, salinity and other abiotic stresses, and disease resistances in wheat. Deeper understanding of the physiological and genetic bases of drought and heat resistance is crucial for maintaining and improving breeding program efficiency. The high-quality wheat reference genome sequence is recently decoded and new genotyping tools are being developed based on the most updated genomics information to be used in practical breeding programs. In this chapter, we focused on the (i) quantitative trait loci (QTLs) analysis related to drought, heat, salinity tolerance, and diseases resistance in wheat, (ii) functional genes discovered for important breeding traits and development of markers for use in breeding, (iii) role of wheat genetic resources to enhance the genetic diversity and expansion of alleles for important genes, (iv) improved genotyping and phenotyping approaches to understand the genetic basis of wheat production traits, and (iv) future strategies to accelerate the rate of genetic gain in a changing climate.