Physiological breeding

Key steps in a physiological breeding pipeline: (a) crop design, (b) genetic resource exploration, (c) phenotyping mainly in field environments, (d) genetic analysis to enable marker assisted breeding, (e) hybridization and progeny selection, (f) evaluation of genetic gains via multi-location testing systems, like the International Wheat Improvement Network [1], and (g) informatics services underpinning all activities. The latter underlines the inter-dependence of each step where, for example, results from multi-location trials combined with genetic analysis permit dissection of genotype × environment interaction, better targeted phenotyping of genetic resources, and refined crossing strategies. 288