Wheat adaptation

Jul 1, 2009

Australian wheat production is greatly influenced by periods of drought and high temperature. In future climate we expect increases in incidences of low or high temperature and potentially in reduced rainfall. This project was funded by GRDC. We conducted experiments on flowering time and tillering, and assembled datasets from other researchers to build a new gene-based model to predict heading time. The model was validated over a wide range of environments (ca. 4500 observations) and showed substantial spatial variability of frost and heat events across the Australian wheatbelt in current and future climates. In future climates, the target sowing and flowering windows would be shifted earlier by up to two and one months.

model adaptation gene wheat phenology GRDC
Bangyou Zheng
Bangyou Zheng
Data Scientist / Digital Agronomist

a research scientist of digital agriculture at the CSIRO.

Publications

Identification of Earliness Per Se Flowering Time Locus in Spring Wheat through a Genome-Wide Association Study
Identification of earliness per se (Eps) flowering time loci in spring wheat are troublesome due to confounding effects of …
Project DOI
Velocity of temperature and flowering time in wheat – assisting breeders to keep pace with climate change
By accelerating crop development, warming climates may result in mismatches between key sensitive growth stages and extreme climate …
Project DOI
Breeding for the future: How to adapt to frost, drought and heat impacts in Australian wheat

While extreme climatic events (frost, heat and drought) can already severely limit wheat production, the expected future increase in …
Project
The shifting influence of drought and heat stress for crops in Northeast Australia
Characterization of drought environment types (ETs) has proven useful for breeding crops for drought-prone regions. Here, we consider …
Project DOI
Crop modelling to aid crop improvement

Substantial genotype x environment interactions impede breeding progress for yield. Identifying genetic controls associated with yield …
Project
Gene-based prediction of heading time to target real-time and future climate adaptation in wheat

Spring wheat production systems in Australia require fine-tuning of heading time in order to maximise the efficient use of resources …
Project
Predicting heading date and frost impact in wheat across Australia
Spring radiant frosts occurring when wheat is in reproductive developmental stages can result in catastrophic yield lost for producers. …
Project Project
Frost trends and their estimated impact on yield in the Australian wheatbelt
Radiant spring frosts occurring during reproductive developmental stages can result in catastrophic yield loss for wheat producers. To …
Project Project DOI
Breeding for the future: How to adapt to potential impacts of future frost, drought and heat events on Australian wheat?
While extreme climatic events (frost, heat and drought) can already severely limit wheat production, the expected future increase in …
Project
Breeding for the future – avoiding climate extremes and maximising yield of spring wheat in water-limited environments
Project
Predicting heading time of Australian wheat using effects of VRN1 and Ppd-D1
Flowering time is a main determinant of wheat adaptation to diverse environments and is influenced by three groups of genes, earliness …
Project
Role of genotypic variation in response to increasing temperatures in wheat
Project
Using gene-based information to adapt wheat flowering time to avoid heat, frost and drought stresses in current and future climates
Varying the timing of reproductive stages of growth relative to climatic stresses is a useful adaptation to maintain yields. In future …
Project
Quantification of the effects of VRN1 and Ppd-D1 to predict spring wheat (Triticum aestivum) heading time across diverse environments
Heading time is a major determinant of the adaptation of wheat to different environments, and is critical in minimizing risks of frost, …
Project DOI
Association genetics for earliness components and QTL-based ecophysiological predictions of heading date provide tools to optimize heading date through breeding
Project
Wheat response to drought and heat - Using crop modelling to prepare for the future
While extreme temperature and frequent drought severely affect wheat production, predictions of climate change forecast increased …
Project
Breeding for the future: what are the potential impacts of future frost and heat events on sowing and flowering time requirements for Australian bread wheat (Triticum aestivium) varieties?
Extreme climate, especially temperature, can severely reduce wheat yield. As global warming has already begun to increase mean …
Project DOI
Crop improvement, ideotyping and modelling under climate change
The year 2050 is two to five full cycles of plant breeding from the present. Given that it takes 3 to 20 years to develop a new …
Project
Frost and heat limits to the wheat flowering ‘window’ in present and future climates
To pollinate and set grain, Australian wheat needs to flower in spring in a ‘window’ when risks of frost or heat stress are low. Other …
Project