ARS | Publication request: Breeding Spring Wheat for 21st Century

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book/Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: August 22, 2008
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: Common wheat, known as bread wheat, is one of major crops for human food consumption. It is further classified into spring and winter wheat based on the distinct growing seasons. Spring wheat is grown worldwide and usually planted in the spring and harvested in late summer or early fall. In this chapter, we reviewed recent advances in wheat product marketing, genetics and genomics, germplasm improvement, and breeding methodologies and achievements. We discussed current goals of spring breeding, foundation seed production and intellectual property issues, and future prospects in wheat breeding. Future wheat breeding would focus on redesigning the wheat plant, discovery and assembly of hybrid vigor, efficient management of water and drought, genetically superior system of uptake and translocation of nutrients, suitable germplasm adapted to conservation tillage practices, durable and multiple pest resistance, and integrations of novel technologies (i.e. double haploid and marker-assisted selection) into breeding programs.