The protection of wheat across the Americas against the challenges of climate change

Climate change is unequivocal, as evidence by the successively warmer and fluctuating temperatures, as well as the erratic and extreme precipitation experienced during the past decades. The annual average temperature in Canada increased by 1.7 °C between 1948 and 2016, in Quebec by 1.1 °C, while globally it was 0.8 °C. Wheat yield was estimated to be reduced in 6-13% for each degree Celsius rise in temperature. Climate change creates a significant challenges for food production for a growing global population. Increasing the genetic diversity and implementation of new technologies are key to keeping pace with the increasing agricultural challenges. 

In this project, with international collaborations, we propose to study an international spring wheat collection (ISWC, 150 cultivars) in multi-location trials in Quebec and South America to evaluate mechanisms related to broad environmental adaptation and to identify associated genetic regions to develop a more resilient wheat varieties. 

Several traits related with abiotic and biotic stress tolerances will be evaluated in field and/or in drought experiments under controlled conditions, including grain yield, disease incidence, canopy temperature, stay-green and root system architecture. The multi-environment trials will also be used to evaluate the effect of environment on the end-use quality of wheat (bread-type quality). 

The ISWC will be sequenced and genomic regions associated with environmental adaptation identified by genome-wide association mapping. Sequence tags explaining high effects on adaptation will be converted to high-throughput markers, for cheap and easy use in breeding programs. Resilience traits will be introduced in Quebec wheat by crossings, having parents with the outstanding traits identified during this project. The progenies with the desired traits will be identified by marker-assisted selection for high-heritability traits, genomic selection for low heritability traits and traditional phenotyping. 

The final aim of the project is to prevent devastating crop damage by extreme temperatures and drought conditions in the short and medium-long terms.