Improvement Grain Yield and Yellow Rust Resistance in Four Bread Wheat Crosses

Four bread wheat crosses between Line 1 and each of Misr 1, Misr 3, Sakha 93 and Sakha 95 were studied in F 1 , F 2 and F 3 generations to develop promising wheat lines having high grain yield and yellow rust resistance at Sakha Agricultural Research Station, ARC, Egypt. The experiments were conducted during four successive growing seasons from 2018/19 to 2021/22 . For most studied characters in the F 2 and F 3 generations, the genetic variances indicated an important role with moderate to high broad sense heritability. Variations in all studied traits among F 3 families in the four crosses were significant. Regarding yellow rust, the parent Misr 3 was resistant while Sakha 93, Sakha 95 were moderately resistant, Line 1 was moderately susceptible and Misr 1 was susceptible. Yellow rust resistance in the two parents of cross 1 and cross 3 were controlled by one dominant gene for yellow rust. On the other hand, cross 2 and cross 4 were controlled by two dominant genes. The final selection based on grain yield and yellow rust resistant resulted in 11 families from Line 1 × Misr 1 cross, 12 families from Line 1 × Misr 3 cross, 4 families from Line 1 × Sakha 93 cross and 6 families from Line 1 × Sakha 95 cross. These 33 families seemed to be promising genotypes thus, they will be evaluating to select the best lines having highest agronomic traits and rust resistance.