Progress in genetic improvement of grain yield and related physiological traits of Chinese wheat in Henan Province

- Wheat landmark cultivars from Henan released in different decades were tested.
- Yield increase was attributed to the improvement of grain weight and number.
- The capacity of assimilate accumulation and translocation was improved continuously.
- Improvement of biomass will still be the primary target in future wheat breeding.

Wheat is one of the staple food crops worldwide and breeding for high yield wheat is critical to meet the need of increasing world population. To determine the factors that limit wheat yield potential in Henan province, China, 30 wheat cultivars that have been widely grown in Henan province since 1940s were evaluated for grain yield and related physiological traits. The results show that grain yield has been significantly increased since 1940s, with an annual genetic gain of 1.09%, and the increased yield after 1900s was attributed to the introduction of 1BL/1RS translocation. The significant yield increase mainly resulted from a significant increase in grain number per spike (GNPS), thousand kernel weight (TKW) and harvest index (HI), and a significant decrease in plant height due to utilization of semi-dwarfing genes. The genetic improvement of assimilate accumulation and translocation was mainly reflected by the improvement in post-anthesis assimilate accumulation (PoAAA) and post-anthesis transportion rate (PoATR) of pre-anthesis assimilates (PrAA), with genetic gains of 0.63% and 1.89%, respectively. The improvement of the PoAAA was closely related to an increase in net photosynthetic rates (Pn) of flag leaves at anthesis and 20 days after anthesis, and leaf area index (LAI) at 20 days after anthesis; whereas the improvement of the PoATR of the PrAA was closely associated with the improvement of accumulation and redistribution of the assimilates accumulated in stems and sheaths. As yield increased, the source-sink ratio significantly decreased, reflecting that the source has been gradually becoming a limiting factor to grain yield increase. Therefore, diverse strategies should be adopted to improve biomass (source) in future wheat breeding to meet the need of continuous increasing in wheat yield.