How does heterosis affect yield, quality and disease resistance in hybrid wheat?

有必要增加全球粮食生产，以满足不断增长的人口规模，并减少农业对环境的影响。目前，为了增加小麦等主要作物的产量，育种工作通过品系育种来选择改良的表型。杂交已被证明可以大大改善作物，如玉米和水稻，并从所产生的杂种优势中获益，包括增加产量，质量和抗逆性。小麦杂交在商业上以前是不可行的，但随着新技术的发展，生产杂交小麦种子现在具有巨大的潜力。然而，我们还不知道在杂交小麦中联合收割机等位基因以促进产量、品质和抗病性提高的最佳方法。本项目将利用遗传学和基因组学方法来鉴定对关键农艺性状有益的基因组合。我们将研究在常规纯合系中有益的等位基因是否可以在杂合状态下在杂种中提供益处，以及相关等位基因的母体或父本捐赠是否影响表型。这项研究将提供更深入的了解遗传基础的杂交小麦，以及适用于其他植物物种的改进表型。

There is a need to increase global food production to meet growing population sizes, as well to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture. Currently, to increase the production of staple crops such as wheat, breeding efforts select for improved phenotypes through line breeding. Hybridisation has been shown to greatly improve crops, such as maize and rice, with benefits from the resulting heterosis including increased yields, quality and stress resistance. Hybridisation of wheat has previously not been commercially viable, but with the development of new technologies, producing hybrid wheat seeds now holds great potential. However, we do not yet understand the best ways to combine alleles within hybrid wheat to promote increased yields, quality and disease resistance.This project will use genetic and genomic approaches to identify combinations of genes beneficial for key agronomic traits. We will investigate whether alleles that are beneficial in conventional homozygous lines can provide benefits in the heterozygous state within hybrids, and whether the maternal or paternal donation of relevant alleles affects the phenotype. This research will provide deeper understanding of the genetics underpinning improved phenotypes in hybrid wheat, as well as being applicable to other plant species.