Development of Winter Wheat Starting Material Using Interspecific Crossing in Breeding for Increased Protein Content

The results of developing new bread winter wheat starting material using interspecific crosses in breeding for increased protein content are presented. The study comprised 35 initial (2–4 crosses with modern cultivars) and 20 advanced (five and more crosses with modern cultivars) introgression lines of bread winter wheat, and nine genotypes characterized by increased relative protein content and groups of lines that combine relatively high indices of thousand grain weight or protein content with resistance to leaf or stem rust and alien glume hairiness were isolated. The significant effect of lines grouping for the number of crossings with modern cultivars on the productivity, protein content, and the sedimentation value, and the effect of cross combinations, in particular, sources of alien traits, on protein content and thousand grain weight were found. It is shown that higher protein content, observed at the backcrossing, does not always correlate with the improvement of flour quality. The improved lines showed a low frequency of combining the traits of high protein content, large grain size with high productivity, and grain quality. No correlation of the most-studied traits with protein content and weak positive correlation (r = 0.28*…0.30*) of thousand grain weight with both the quality characteristics, sedimentation and protein content, were found. The line productivity had negative correlation with protein content (r = –0.43*) in only one variant of the experiment. The lines B241_09, E2792_14, E1598_12, and Od.267b were isolated, which had relatively higher protein content and combined moderate resistance to certain diseases with relatively high indices of the productivity and sedimentation. The isolated lines are characterized by instable productivity and other properties in different environments and require improved stability of these characteristics. Created on the basis of cv. Odeska 267, the quasi-isogenic lines with resistance to leaf rust (E2363_14, E2368_14, and E2369_14) had higher productivity, protein content, and thousand grain weight than recurrent cv. Odeska 267 on a low agricultural background. Using interspecific hybridization and further complicated step crosses with the elements of recurrent breeding, it was not possible to integrate high productivity in optimal environments with tolerance to hard conditions of drought into one genotype.