Growth habit nature of Afghan wheat landraces collected by Late Dr. Kihara et al.

 

Ahamd Shah Stanikzai1,2, Tomohiro Ban1 and Alagu Manickavelu1

 

1: Kihara Institute for Biological Research, Yokohama City University, Japan

2: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Irrigation and Livestock, Afghanistan

 

Corresponding author: Alagu Manickavelu

E-mail: manicks@yokohama-cu.ac.jp

 

 

Abstract

Understanding of growth habit is important for wheat improvement where the researchers should know it to choose the material with respect to adaptation and plant phenology for specific agro-climatic region. The study was carried out to identify the nature of growth habit (Spring, Facultative and Winter type) in orphan Afghan wheat landraces available in Japan. The landrace set containing 321 accessions were grown in field with various time of sowing (December - May) in two years (2012 and 2013) and observed difference in heading date. Based on the data, the landraces were categorized into 65% as Spring type, 14% as Facultative and 21% as Winter type.

 

Key Words: Growth habit, landraces, wheat

 

Introduction

Wheat is the third most important cereal crop in production and occupies the first place in the term of calorie consumption. An increasing tendency in global wheat production has been recently achieved comparing to the previous year (FAO report, 2011). It is one of the strategic crops of Afghanistan as it covers a vast area of agricultural land and is required in huge quantities for food and livelihood purposes. Landrace are important primary gene pool resources that need to be utilized for any crop improvement. JST/JICA SATREPS-Afghan wheat project has been working in Afghan wheat landraces collected by Late Dr. Hitoshi Kihara to improve the wheat system of Afghanistan (Manickavelu et al. 2013). As part of the project, the study was conducted to characterize the growth habit of landraces. Adaptability would be the first particular interest when exotic materials are introduced in breeding programs. Information on the allelic composition of the major growth habit genes, such as vernalization response genes (Vrn) and photoperiod response genes (Ppd) in the accessions helped to understanding the adaptability of the Afghan wheat landraces in various environments (Manickavelu et al. 2014a). Vrn and Ppd genes primarily control flowering time and have pleiotropic effect on developmental and agronomic traits. However the phenotypic observation has not been carried out to complement the above result which is undertaken in the current research.

 

Materials and Methods

The 304 Afghan wheat landraces registered in National Bio-Resource Project of Japan along with six checks (spring-2; Winter-2; Facultative-2) were grown in two consecutive years (2012 - 14) with six (February 15, March 1, March 15, April 1, April 15, May 1) and four (December 1, February 1, March 1, April 1) various time of sowing respectively in experimental fields of Kihara Institute for Biological Research, Japan. Days to 50% heading was recorded and the landraces were categorized into spring, facultative and winter types.

 

Results and Discussion

The study reported the growth habit nature of Afghan wheat landraces collected by Dr. Kihara et al. which are preserving under Kihara Institute of Biological Research as well as NBRP-Wheat. Out of 304 accessions, 65% classified as spring wheat, 14% as facultative wheat and 21% as winter types (Fig. 1) (Table 1). The landraces along with growth habit were categorized with respect to agro-ecological zones of Afghanistan and found their adaptation (Fig. 2). In major wheat growing areas (Zone 2 and 3), the spring wheat landraces were pre-dominantly present. Whereas in Zone 1, only winter and facultative types were present which is consistent with the climate prevailing in the related provinces. This study helped to know the growth habit nature of orphan Afghan wheat landraces that laid path for further research. Especially it helps the breeder to select the appropriate landraces for specific location to improve specific characters. On part of SATREPS-Afghan project, the landraces were characterized for both genotypic and phenotypic traits (Manickavelu et al. 2014b). Hence the current study can complement the other works and help to preciously select the landraces for further enhancement purposes. In addition this work initiated the new research theme of identifying Vrn allelic variation as some of the germplasm which showed clear growth habit from field data but not resulted the genotyping of known Vrn genes (Manickavelu et al. 2014a).

 

References

FAO report (2011) The world cereal production 2011. http://faostat3.fao.org/faostat-gateway/go/to/home/E

 

Manickavelu A, Ban T, Tsujimoto H, Matsui M, Kondo Y (2013) Strategic plan and approaches for Afghanistan wheat improvement under SATREPS. Wheat Inf Serv 116: 9-11.

 

Manickavelu A, Niwa S, Ayumi K, Komatsu K, Naruoka Y, Ban T (2014a) Molecular evaluation of Afghanistan wheat landraces. Plant Genetic Resources: Characterization and Utilization 12(S1): S31-S35.

 

Manickavelu A, Abdulqader J, Ban T (2014b) Molecular evaluation of orphan Afghan wheat landraces collected by Prof. Kihara using single nucleotide polymorphic markers. BMC Plant Biol 14: 320.