# Using a wheat line with wild emmer genetic material to improve modern Triticum aestivum L. varieties by a complex of economically useful traits

## TL;DR

This paper explores using wild emmer wheat to improve modern wheat varieties by enhancing nutritional value and productivity without sacrificing yield.

## Contribution

A novel wheat line with wild emmer genetic material is shown to improve grain quality and stability in hybrids.

## Key findings

- Hybrids with wild emmer introgression showed high cytological stability (90-98% meiotic index).
- Introgression fragments from wild emmer improved grain protein, gluten, and mineral content.
- Hybrids matched or exceeded parental varieties in productivity and grain quality traits.

## Abstract

Wild emmer Triticum dicoccoides samples have a high content of protein and microelements in their grain, but when crossed with common wheat varieties, undesirable properties of a wild relative (low yield, spike fragility and difficult threshing) can be transmitted to the hybrid along with valuable traits. The possibility of improving economically useful traits of modern common wheat varieties using a wheat line with wild emmer genetic material (l29), combining high cytological stability with improved nutritional value and productivity, was studied. The F4– F5 hybrids obtained as a result of crossing in the forward and reverse directions of four common spring wheat varieties with l29 were studied. A C-banding technique and genotyping with SSR markers were used to determine the introgression fragments of T. dicoccoides genetic material. Cytological stability was assessed based on the study of chromosome behavior in microsporogenesis. The grain content of macro- (K, P, Ca and Mg) and microelements (Zn, Fe, Cu and Mn) was established by atomic emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma; the grain quality indices were measured on an Infra LUM FT-12 analyzer. The C-banding and microsatellite analysis data indicate a high frequency of alien genetic material introgression in the genome of hybrid forms. All variants of the l29 introgression of wild emmer material (1BL, 2BS, 3B, 5B and 6AL) were identified among the progeny of eight crossing combinations. The recombinant chromosome 3B was found in all hybrid combinations. The hybrids were characterized by a high level of cytological stability (the meiotic index was 90.0–98.0 %). The effectiveness of using a wheat line with T. dicoccoides genetic material to enhance modern varieties in terms of the content of protein, gluten and mineral composition of grain without reducing productivity was shown. Secondary introgression hybrids, exceeding the initial varieties by a set of grain quality characteristics and not inferior to them in terms of basic productivity indicators, were obtained.