Phenotypic evaluation of elite spring bread wheat genotypes for hybrid potential traits

Wheat breeding has significantly contributed
to enhancing yield potential and stability.
However, one of the most promising technologies for
further sustainable yield increases, hybrid wheat, is
still limited due to lack of well-established heterotic
groups and insufficient heterosis to compensate cost of
hybrid seed production. Thus, optimizing the appropriate
parents and combinations of floral and flowering
traits is important to enhance outcrossing ability.
Phenotyping methods for floral and flowering traits
were applied in this study. Wide phenotypic variation
was observed for all the traits assessed. High heritability
coupled with high genetic advance for anther
extrusion, pollen mass, duration of floret opening, and
openness of florets were observed. Ideally, visual
anther extrusion and pollen shedding appear as
promising traits allowing indirect selection of other
associated floral traits, such as pollen mass and
duration and degree of floret opening. Adopting these
two traits in further selection will allow scoring of
large numbers of genotypes in a very short time.