Creation of a spring soft wheat variety Grenada with the use of innovative breeding technologies based on the original theory of eco-genetic arrangement of quantitative traits

Today, there is an excessive belief in the promise of molecular approaches to the problem of increasing yields, although so far there is not a single variety created by purely molecular methods. In addition, representatives of the new science, the epigenetics, rightly argue that in nature there are no specific genes for productivity and yield that could be molecularly marked or subjected to genomic editing. This article is the first to describe creation of a wheat variety Grenada using innovative breeding technologies emerged from the priority Russian Theory of Eco-Genetic Organization of Quantitative Traits (TEGOQT) which derived from the results of the Interdisciplinary DIAS Program (genetics of spring wheat productivity in Western Siberia) (1973-1984). The essence of these technologies are 1) a special selection of parental pairs on the basis of a deep analysis of the longest pedigrees of the old breeds of parents taken in crosses, 2) priority phenotyping of the group of the most productive varieties of the collection nursery for seven genetic-physiological systems (GPS) which positively or negatively contribute to the harvest, 3) selection of genotypes that have at least one GPS with the maximum plus contribution to the crop, 4) crossing of these genotypes to combine the plus contributions of all seven GPS in the future variety (with several saturations with the genome of one of the parents with the most valuable properties), 6) selection of elite plants after a number of stabilizing reproduction of the hybrid population under the conditions of typical dynamics of the environment lim-factors (in typical years for the breeding zone). Applying these technologies, we obtained a hybrid combination [F1 (Kazakhstanskaya rannespelaya × Tulunskaya 12) with five subsequent saturations with Tulunskaya 12 genome], from which the variety Grenada derived. Both parents of the maternal form Kazakhstanskaya rannespelaya, the Novosibirskaya 67 × Omskaya 9, having wide general adaptability, showed a much lower changes in GPS contribution to productivity as a response to changing environment and good combining ability. The Kazakhstanskaya rannespelaya variety created on their basis combines the best traits of the parents. As to the paternal and saturating form Tulunskaya 12, the improvement in quantitative traits is discrete-accumulative due to the genetic diversity of the East Siberian genotypes. The selection of elite plants under typical agro-climatic conditions resulted in higher yielding genotypes with a pronounced plasticity. A comprehensive assessment of the biotypes from this population in F5 according to seven GPS, positively contributing to productivity, showed their synergetic effect. This was well manifested in the early ripening line Lutescens 506-11 from which the Grenada variety derived. This variety successfully combines high productivity (26-39 % higher compared to the standard) with the resistance to lodging, drought, pre-harvest germination and the grain quality of valuable and strong varieties. A distinctive feature of the variety is the horizontal resistance to Septoria diseases, a dusty smut, powdery mildew, a red-breasted leech, and intra-stem pests. Grenada variety is much lower affected by rust fungi compared to the standard. From one hectare of arable land the Grenada variety gives 628 kg of protein (+119 kg to the standard variety). In 2019, the variety Grenada is zoned by State Commission on Variety Testing of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation for the 9th (Ural) crop region including Bashkiria (about 1 million hectares), Chelyabinsk (1 million hectares), Orenburg (4 million hectares), Kurgan (1 million hectares), and Tyumen (500 thousand hectares) regions. When Grenada occupies these areas (about 7 million hectares), an increase in grain yield will provide an annual economic effect of about 30 million rubles.