O. V. Khomyakova's research while affiliated with Southeast Renal Research Institute and other places

В статье представлены основные методы создания и изучения нового сорта озимой тритикале Георг. Селекционная работа по созданию сорта проведена в ФГБНУ «ФАНЦ Юго-Востока». Сорт выведен методом межсортовой гибридизации в пределах рода Triticale с последующим однократным индивидуальным отбором из межсортового гибрида F2 Водолей/АДП-2//Modus. Дана характеристика сорта по важнейшим хозяйственно ценным признакам, который сравнивали с допущенными к возделыванию в Нижневолжском регионе сортами Зубр и Валентин 90. Направление использования зерна – зернофуражное. Разновидность – ferrugineum. По данным конкурсного сортоиспытания урожайность зерна нового сорта составила 6,2 т/га, что достоверно превышает сорт Зубр на 1,9 т/га и сорт Валентин 90 на 1,5 т/га. По показателю «масса 1000 зерен» сорт Георг уступает обоим стандартам. Сорт отличается более высокой продуктивной кустистостью в сравнении со стандартами – 465 шт./м2, у сортов Зубр и Валентин 90 – 344 и 307 шт./м2 соответственно. Сорт устойчив к полеганию. Высота соломины растений сорта – 110,7 см и достоверно не отличается от таковой у сорта Валентин 90, но ниже в сравнении с сортом Зубр в среднем на 21,3 см. Натурная масса зерна сорта Георг составляет 732 г/л. Этот показатель ниже, чем у сорта Зубр, на 9 г/л и выше, чем у сорта Валентин 90, на 31,3 г/л. Индекс прорастания зерна у нового сорта и стандартов не различался и свидетельствовал об их восприимчивости к предуборочному прорастанию зерна. По содержанию белка достоверных различий между сортами не выявлено. Объем осадка SDS-седиментации у сорта Георг ниже, чем у сорта Валентин 90, на 6,7 мл и статистически значимо не отличается от сорта Зубр. По показателю «объем хлеба, см3/100 г муки» новый сорт и стандарты не различались. Сорт допущен к возделыванию в 7 (Средневолжском) регионе Государственного реестра РФ. Главными достоинствами сорта Георг являются высокий потенциальный урожай зерна и устойчивость к полеганию, обусловленная сниженной высотой соломины растений.

Anther culture is one of the most popular methods for obtaining haploid triticale plants. The current paper has presented the study results of the efficiency of the method for obtaining haploid plants in promising winter triticale forms bred by the Federal Agricultural Research Center of South-East. There has been estimated haploproduction parameters for the studied genotypes on the nutrient media C-17 and P-2. There were no genotypes unresponsive to androgenesis. There has been found that the medium Potato-2 had a significant positive effect on the total number of embryogenic structures per 100 cultivated anthers in four of the six studied genotypes when the index increased in 1–3 times. The mean value of the EC/100KP indicator was 23.3 with a variation of 6.4-75.1. The largest number of ES (45.8 and 75.1) was found in genotype No. 96 (F5 Zimogor/win.br.wheat L.39) on induction media C-17 and P-2. The genotypes No. 95 and No. 97 were characterized by the lowest indicators F4 DH13/ win.br.wheat ‘Atkara’//Vodoley/ADP-2///Colina and F5 MAG/Vodoley//TI-17. Plant regeneration varied from 3.4 to 22.1 with an average value of 12.6 per 100 EC. The mean number of green plants per 100 EC was 3.9, varying from 0.4 to 12.1. The proportion of green plants, depending on the genotype, varied from 5.0 to 76.9 %. Two-way analysis of variance has identified the dominant role of the genotype at all stages of haploproduction. The proportion of effect of the nutrient medium was statistically significant, but insignificant in comparison with the genotype. There has been established that, along with genotypic dependence and albinism, the limiting factor of the method is a low frequency of regeneration of embryo-like structures. In total, there were obtained 949 regenerated plants out of 7538 embryogenic structures, of which 326 were green. The ratio of green plants to albinos was 1:2.

The purpose of the work is to create a drought-resistant, highly productive variety of winter triticale for the arid conditions of the Volga region. The article presents the main methods of creating and studying a new variety of winter hexaploid triticale Zubr. Breeding work on the creation of variety Zubr was carried out at the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Organization “Federal Center of Agriculture Research of South-East Region”. The variety was selected by the method of intervarietal hybridization within the genus Triticale, followed by a single individual selection from hybrid population F7 Strelez /Student. The characteristics of the variety according to the most important economically valuable traits are given in comparison with the varieties Student and Valentin 90, approved for the use in the 8th region of the Russian Federation of the state register of breeding achievements. Grain can be used for animal feed in the form of fodder. The increase in grain yield to the standard variety Student on average over the years of study was 9.6 c/ha and to the Valentin 90 – 2.0 c/ha. The high yield of the variety is formed due to the high mass of 1000 grains, the number and weight of grain per spike as main characteristics in the breeding for drought resistance. The laboratory study also confirmed the high drought resistance of the Zubr variety. Cell membrane permeability, as an indirect indicator of drought resistance, had the lowest value in the new cultivar among 70 samples of the world collection. The new variety forms the completed grain (actual weight is 722g/l). The new cultivar and standards did not differ in the crude protein content in the grain (13.3-13.4%). In terms of the fall number, as an indirect indicator of resistance to pre-harvest grain germination, the new variety is inferior to standard varieties.

Triticale (× Triticosecale Wittmack) is a hybridized grain crop developed from wheat and rye crossings. Today, triticale is a multipurpose commercial grain crop with great potential as a human food and animal feed. The sown area of the new grain crop in the world reached 4 million hectares in 2018, grain production was about 14 million tons. The current climate change, the rapid evolution of pathogens, as well as the requirements of the modern market dictate the necessity for accelerated development of varieties while reducing the cost of their development. The production of double haploids makes it possible to reduce the time required for the development of homozygous lines by an average of 5–7 years. For the mass production of haploid triticale plants in vitro, there are used two methods, namely anther/microspore culture and distant hybridization followed by selective chromosome elimination of the pollinator. The most critical factors for the success of developing haploids in anther culture are a genotype, growing conditions of donor plants, a microspore development stage, stress effects on heads or anthers, and a nutrient media. Among the unresolved problems of the method are a genotypic dependence, a high incidence of albinism and a presence of aneuploids in the androgenic plant progeny. The rye genome is more often involved in chromosomal transformations than the wheat genome. Most aneuploids are nullisomics, most often on the 2R and 5R chromosomes. Nullisomic plants for 2R and 5R chromosomes have fewer number of spikelets per head and fewer number of kernels per head. In order to develop haploids by the method of selective chromosome elimination during distant hybridization, there have been successfully used such grain crops whose pollen is insensitive to Kr-genes, as maize (Zea mays L.) and wild cereal grass ‘Imperata Cylindrical’ (Imperata cylindrical L.). The advantages of the method are less genotypic dependence, absence of albino plants, genetic stability of regenerants, and reduced costs for developing haploid plants. The length of flowering period of ‘Imperata Cylindrical’ and the absence of the need to combine the timing of flowering period of the parents ensure the economy and efficiency of using this species when developing haploid triticale plants. The purpose of the current review was to characterize the methods of mass development of haploid triticale plants, to describe their advantages and disadvantages when being used in the breeding process.

Elimination of chromosomes is a phenomenon widespread in distant hybrids. It ranges from the loss of one or two chromosomes to elimination of whole chromosome complement of one of the parents. Such elimination leads to the production of haploid plants, which then are treated with colchicine to double the chromosome number and to develop DH‑lines. Homozygosity of doubled haploids serves as a basis for their wide use in plant genetics and breeding. The use of this approach reduces the time required for obtaining homozygous lines by 5 years on the average. It leads to savings in human resources, energy and acreage. The development of the “ bulbosum ” method for haploid barley production had a strong influence on the chromosome engineering in cereals and its implementation in plant breeding. However, the method developed on that basis could not be used effectively for producing haploids of wheat, triticale, etc. because of Hordeum bulbosum L. pollen sensitivity to genes inhibiting wheat crossability ( Kr genes). The crosses with Imperata cylindrica (L.) Raeusch. is an efficient alternative to the widely used wheat × maize and triticale × maize crosses due to abundant pollen supply within a longer time period, significantly higher frequency of embryos formation and haploid plants regeneration.

Gametic embryogenesis is one form of totipotency of plant cells, in which either male or female gametes are induced to form embryoids (sporophytes). Regeneration of haploid plants from embryoids and subsequent chromosome duplication result in doubled haploids and DH-lines. The production of haploids and doubled haploids (DHs) through gametic embryogenesis allows a single-stage development of complete homozygous lines from heterozygous plants. The development of effective haploid protocols to produce homozygous plants has a significant impact on plant breeding, shorting the time and costs required to establish new cultivars. There are several available methods to obtain haploids and DHs-lines, of which anther or isolated microspore culture in vitro are the most effective. Microspore embryogenesis is more commonly applied. This is in part because more male gametophytes are contained in a single anther compared to the single female gametophyte per embryo sac. Microspore embryogenesis is regarded as one of the most striking examples of plant cell totipotency. The switch of cultured microspores from gametophytic to sporophytic mode of development has been induced by stress treatments of various kinds applied to donor plants, inflorescences, buds, anthers or isolated microspores both in vivo and in vitro. Physical or chemical pretreatments (cold and heat shock, sugar starvation, colchicine, n-butanol, gametocydes) act as a trigger for inducing the sporophytic pathway, preventing the gametophytic pathway development of microspore. The recent investigations have revealed that cold pretreatment during microspore reprogramming acts rather as an anti-stress factor alleviating the real stress caused by nutrient starvation of anthers or microspores isolated from donor plants. Under stress pretreatment a vacuolated and polarized microspore transformed into a depolarized and dedifferentiated cell, which is an obligatory condition for reprogramming their development. We summarize data concerning the role of various stresses in the induction of microspore embryogenesis and possible mechanisms of their action at cellular and molecular levels. Identification of new stresses allows creating efficient protocols of doubled haploid production for end-user application in the breeding of many important crops.

The article presents the study results of the breeding value of winter triticale lines in the main competitive variety-testing. The va­riety “Student” was used as a standard variety introduced into the State List of Protected Breeding Achievements in the Nizhny-Volga region. There have been selected the most valuable lines as the sources for use in breeding programs. There were identified such promising lines for high grain productivity as № 1 (F11Polessky 10/Vodoley), № 7 (F12Sargau/Polessky 7), № 9 (F8Vodoley/ADP-2//Modus), № 12 (F7Student/Vodoley) with potential of 65.5–83.0 hwt/ha. The plant height of these lines is reduced compared with the standard variety on 22–37 cm. The study results have shown the existence of a wide spectrum of genotypic variability of the “cell membrane permeability”, as a key physiological indicator of drought resistance among the triticale lines and varieties. According to the damage degree of cell membranes, the line № 9 and the variety “Svyatozar” were selected. The lowest value of this indicator was revealed in the genotypes (35.5 and 31.5%) and it does not differ from that in the winter rye variety “Saratovskaya 7” (33.5%, 13.1% of НСР05). The lines № 1, № 7, № 9 and № 11, which according to the complex of the studied parameters are close to the variety “Valentin 90”, are of interest in the breeding work to improve baking traits of triticale.

The parameters of breeding-valuable features in triticale DH-lines compared with the standard variety and inbreeding triticale lines were studied under Volga Region conditions. DS-lines exceeding the standard variety in grain yield and mass of 1000 grains, which are essential adaptive features, have been revealed. The genetic diversity of lines obtained from the same hybridization has been confirmed by various pronouncement of the investigated signs in DH-lines.

Dynamics of triticale physiological parameters during overwinter of the plants when compared with rye and common wheat was studied. There is an overlap among triticale lines and common wheat cv. Kalach 60 for values of parameters studied. The winter rye Saratovskaya 7 is characterized by higher sugar content and membrane stability and lower values of electrolyte leakage and total water content. According to the complex of physiological parameters, the triticale breeding line no 6 approaches winter rye Saratovskaya 7, while the triticale breeding lines no. 1 and cv. Valentin 90 were compliant to common wheat Kalach 60. The statistically reliable correlation coefficients between physiological parameters studied were discovered.