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Sammanfattning

Integrating perennial grain crops into agricultural systems can become a key milestone for increasing the provision of ecosystem services of food production systems. Intermediate wheatgrass is a novel perennial grain and forage crop that is undergoing domestication. Potential trade-offs between resource allocation and reproductive and vegetative plant structures can challenge the response to selection for both grain and forage production under dual-purpose use. Our goal was to understand the genetic relationship between grain and forage yield components, quantify potential trade-offs between vegetative and reproductive allocation, and optimize the response to selection under dual-purpose management. Phenological, grain, and forage traits were evaluated in 30 half-sib families across two field experiments conducted over three years. No trade-offs were detected between grain and forage yield traits, indicating that the simultaneous improvement of both traits is feasible. Grain yield per spike and spikes per plant are promising secondary traits for indirect selection, given their moderate-to-high heritability (h2 = 0.58 and 0.41) and strong Pearson correlation coefficients with grain yield per plant (0.68 and 0.82). These traits could be assessed in the first year, increasing genetic gain per unit time. Intermediate wheatgrass germplasm could therefore be efficiently developed by shortening the time to first evaluation, using secondary traits, and performing selection under dual-purpose management.

Nyckelord

perennial grains; dual-purpose crops; Kernza breeding

Publicerad i

Agronomy
2025, volym: 15, nummer: 12, artikelnummer: 2895
Utgivare: MDPI

SLU författare

UKÄ forskningsämne

Jordbruksvetenskap

Publikationens identifierare

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15122895

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/145693