Extending the duration of the ear construction phase to increase grain yield of bread wheat

Abstract

© 2019 CSIRO. We tested the hypothesis that lengthening the duration between the terminal spikelet stage of development and anthesis (referred to here as the construction-phase duration, CPD) will increase yield per unit area in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Field experiments were undertaken at 17 sites across the high-rainfall zone of south-eastern and Western Australia in 2014 and 2015. In total, 205 wheat genotypes were grown. Genetic material included a set of near-isogenic lines (NILs) varying in photoperiod and vernalisation alleles commercial wheat cultivars and breeding lines and lines selected from the Multiparent Advanced Generation Inter Cross population. As such, this is the only..