IDAHO
UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO
Plant and Soil Science Department, Moscow, ID 83343, USA, and the Agricultural Experiment Station, P.O. Box AA, Aberdeen, ID 83210, USA
R. Zemetra, E. Souza, S. Guy, P. Berger, M. Lauver, J. Windes, M. Moore,
J. Hansen, P. Shiel, K. OBrien, P. McCarthy, T. Linscott, and J. Udall.
Production.
The 1997 Idaho winter wheat production was 69.6 million bushels, a 1.1 %
increase from 1996. The high level of production can be attributed to favorable
moisture conditions, an increase in acreage harvested, and a higher than
average yield per acre (80 bu/A). Some areas suffered stand loss from frost
heaving in the spring. Because of the climatic conditions, foliar diseases
such as stripe rust, leaf rust, and stem rust were observed. The incidence
of disease was late in the growing season and did not have a significant
effect on yield in most cases. Statistics for the Idaho winter wheat production
for the last 5 years are listed in Table 1.
| Year | Acres planted x 1,000 |
Acres harvested x 1,000 |
Production bu/A |
Yield (bushels) x 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | 920 | 850 | 79 | 67,000 |
| 1994 | 840 | 790 | 72 | 57,000 |
| 1995 | 830 | 770 | 76 | 58,500 |
| 1996 | 900 | 860 | 80 | 68,800 |
| 1997 | 920 | 870 | 80 | 69,600 |
Personnel.
The Aberdeen wheat breeding program hired Leland Sorenson to replace Tony
Wasley as the senior scientific aide in the research program. He will be
responsible for seed shipments among other duties. Requests for seed from
the Aberdeen program can be directed to Leland at 208-397-4181. Josh Udall
completed his M.S. thesis in 1997 on maping starch viscosity and poly-phenol
oxidase variation in the recombinant inbred population 'NY6432-18/Clarks
Cream'. He is now in a Ph.D. program at the University of Wisconsin. Zhining
Wang has joined the Moscow breeding program as a Ph.D. student. His research
area will be on the risk of transfer of herbicide resistance genes from
wheat to jointed goatgrass.
Cultivar development.
The Aberdeen wheat breeding program released Jefferson, a
semidwarf HRSW with an intermediate protein content. Jefferson is adapted
to high elevation, irrigated production, and high rainfall rain-fed production.
Foundation seed of Jefferson should be available in the autumn of 1998.
Transformation.
Field trials were planted in October, 1997, to evaluate the performance
of transgenic wheat carrying either a BYDV-cp gene or a WSMV-cp
gene. Headrows of transgenics with either pac-1 (a dsRNase gene),
a modified BYDV-cp gene, or the WSMV-cp gene also were planted
in the field. A PR-1 gene was inserted into the cultivar Brundage.
Differences were observed in particle bombardment transformation frequency
among cultivars subjected to different pretransformation environments. The
environments tested were exposure of the callus to a mannitol media and/or
air-drying of callus prior to bombardment.
Biological risk.
Greenhouse and field results indicate a potential for genes to move from
wheat to jointed goatgrass. Self-fertility was restored after only two backcrosses
to a 'wheat x jointed goatgrass' hybrid with jointed goatgrass as the recurrent
parent. Field studies have shown that production of BC1 and BC2 plants can
occur naturally. The frequency of BC1 production in the field over 2 years
equaled or was greater than that observed in the greenhouse. BC2 frequency
in the first year of the field study was lower than that observed in the
greenhouse but was equivalent to the frequency of BC1 seed production.
Publications.
Mohammad FA, Windes JM, and Souza E. 1998. Total non-structural carbohydrates in winter wheat population segregating for snow mold tolerance, Crop Sci (in press).
Rafi MM, Zemetra RS, and Quisenberry SS. 1997. Feeding damage of Russian wheat aphid on resistant and susceptible wheat genotypes. Cereal Res Commun 25: 63-68.
Souza E, Windes JM, Sunderman DW, and Obrien K. 1997. Registration of Whitebird wheat. Crop Sci 37:1009.
Souza E, Windes JM, Sunderman DW, and Obrien K. 1997. Registration of Pomerelle wheat. Crop Sci 37:1010-1011.
Souza E, Windes JM, Quisenberry SS, Schotzko DJ, Lamb PF, Halbert S, Zemetra RS, and Smith CM. 1997. Registration of Idaho 471A and 471B wheat germplasm. Crop Sci 37:1031.
Souza E, Windes JM, Quisenberry SS, Schotzko DJ, Lamb PF, Halbert S, Zemetra RS, and Smith CM. 1997. Registration of Idaho 472 wheat germplasm. Crop Sci 37:1032.
Zemetra RS, Hansen J, and Mallory-Smith CA. 1998. Potential for gene transfer between wheat (Triticum aestivum) and jointed goatgrass (Aegilops cylindrica). Weed Sci (in press).
Zemetra RS, Souza EJ, Lauver M, Windes J, Guy SO, Brown B, Robertson L, and Kruk M. 1998. Registration of Brundage wheat. Crop Sci (in press).