Wuletaw Tadesse Degu

Wheat is the most important food crop which originated in the Fertile Crescent, the cradle of human civilization. Currently, it grows an average of 220 million hectares globally with an annual production level of 810 million tons. In Morocco, wheat...

Wheat is an important crop for food security, providing a source of protein and energy for the growing population in Ethiopia. However, both biotic and abiotic factors limit national wheat productivity. The availability of genetically diverse wheat...

Fungal diseases cause significant yield loss to wheat production. Septoria tritici blotch (STB), caused by the ascomycete fungus Zymoseptoria trtici, is one of the major fungal diseases affecting wheat production worldwide. In Ethiopia, STB is a...

Bread wheat germplasm is accessed from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) by Australian wheat breeders and researchers through the CIMMYT...

Abiotic stress, notably drought, impacts wheat production globally, but more so in central and South Asia, North Africa (CWANA), and sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The current study attempts to identify significant markers linked to drought and heat...

Septoria tritici blotch (STB) caused by the fungal pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici, anamorph Septoria tritici Rob. ex Desm., is an important wheat pathogen worldwide, reported to be major wheat production threating factor, posing considerable yield...

Genomic selection, the application of genomic prediction (GP) models to select candidate individuals, has significantly advanced in the past two decades, effectively accelerating genetic gains in plant breeding. This article provides a holistic...

Hessian fly (HF), Mayetiola destructor (Say), is an important wheat insect pest that annually results in significant production losses. In Morocco, this insect reduces wheat yields by 32–36 % during drought years. The purpose of the current study is...

Wheat is a global staple crop, which contributes 20% of the
total dietary proteins and calories. Despite its importance,
wheat production and productivity are affected by various
biotic and abiotic stresses. Septoria leaf blotch is one of the...

Globally, over 2 billion people suffer from malnutrition due to inadequate intake of micronutrients. Genomic-assisted breeding is identified as a valuable method to facilitate developing new improved plant varieties targeting grain yield and...

Globally, over 2 billion people sufer from malnutrition due to inadequate intake of micronutrients. Genomic-assisted breeding is identifed as a valuable method to facilitate developing new improved plant varieties targeting grain yield and...

Hessian fly (HF), Mayetiola destructor (Say) is an important pest of wheat in North Africa, North America, Southern Europe, Northern Kazakhstan, Northwestern China, and New Zealand. It can cause up to 30% yield losses and sometimes can result in...

Wheat occupies a special role in global food security since, in addition to providing 20% of
our carbohydrates and protein, almost 25% of the global production is traded internationally. The
importance of wheat for food security was recognised by the...

Drought is one of the most important yield-limiting factors in Morocco. Identification and deployment of drought-tolerant wheat varieties are important to cope with the challenge of terminal moisture stress and increase wheat productivity. A panel...

Wheat, cultivated on a total area of 2.1 million hectares annually with a
total production of 6.7 million tons, is one of the most important food
security crops in Ethiopia. However, there is a huge gap between wheat
production and supply due to the...

Stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) is one of the most destructive diseases of wheat (Triticum aes- tivum L.) worldwide causing huge yield losses every year. Development and deployment of resistant varieties is the most...

The present research aims to identify the efficient combination of drought-tolerance selection criteria and associated quantitative trait loci. A panel of 197 bread wheat genotypes was evaluated for yield- and drought-tolerance-related traits in two...

Soil nematodes are major soil organisms known to reduce wheat production worldwide. However, they are a crucial part of soil biodiversity. Due to the limited data available regarding nematode biodiversity associated with cereal crops in Morocco, a...

Emerging wheat stem rust races have become a major threat to global wheat production. Finding additional loci responsible for resistance to these races and incorporating them into currently cultivated varieties is the most economic and...

Breeding hybrids with maximum heterosis requires efficient cross-pollination and an improved male sterility system. Renewed efforts have been made to dissect the phenotypic variation and genetic basis of hybrid floral traits, although the potential...

Soil salinity is a long-term issue that needs addressing by developing tolerant cultivars. Today,
genome-wide association studies (GWAS) is a preferred tool for quantitative trail loci detection for
different traits. Ten salinity-related attributes...

Salinity stress affects bread wheat as one of the major cereal crops. Phenotyping elite bread wheat
germplasm has high importance for its effective utilization in breeding programs. The objectives of
the present investigation were to screen 169 bread...

Global climate change is accelerating the process of soil salinization. Salinity restricts wheat
production worldwide, including in Egypt. Thus, it is recommended to screen for salt-tolerant
genotypes according to salinity tolerance related traits...

Identification and exploration of the
genetic architecture of traits related to yield, quality,
and drought and heat tolerance is important for yield
and quality improvement of wheat through markerassisted
selection. One hundred and ninety-two spring...

Low adoption of agricultural technologies slows efforts to increase agricultural productivity and enhance rural livelihoods in developing countries. A large body of literature has sought explanations for the problem, but the focus has been mainly on...

Wheat quality parameters are complex traits predominantly influenced by the genetic background of varieties. A total of 802 spring bread wheat breeding lines were tested at Marchouch station, Morocco in 2018 aimed at mining invaluable QTNs for grain...

Drought is the principal abiotic stress which affect grain yield and quality of wheat at the global level, more particularly in West and South Asia, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. To identify marker-trait associations (MTA) and putative genes...

Hybrid wheat breeding is one of the most promising technologies for further sustainable
yield increases. However, the cleistogamous nature of wheat displays a major bottleneck for a successful
hybrid breeding program. Thus, an optimized breeding...

Yellow rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, is a common and serious fungal disease of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) all over the world and particularly in the Central and West Asia and North Africa region. To identify effective yellow...

Heat and drought are the foremost abiotic stress factors that significantly diminish both grain yield and quality parameters of bread wheat. Genetic improvement of varieties withstanding such stresses and able to give sufficient grain yield with...

Abiotic stress, especially drought and heat, affects cereal yields and wheat production worldwide, more particularly in West and South Asia, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. The present study was carried out on 229 spring bread wheat (Triticum...

Wheat breeding has significantly contributed
to enhancing yield potential and stability.
However, one of the most promising technologies for
further sustainable yield increases, hybrid wheat, is
still limited due to lack of well-established heterotic...

Drought is one of the major abiotic constraints seriously influencing bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotype production in Ethiopia. Genetic resources and selection methodologies are among the prerequisites to improve the efficiency of breeding...

Current land use trends show an increasing preference for monocropping – mostly a consequence of policies and incentives aimed at enhancing the intensification of cereals. This shift has caused some to question whether legume–cereal rotations can...

Wheat is the most widely adapted crop, growing in diverse environments ranging from sea
level to regions as high as 4570 m.a.s.l. in Tibet (Percival, 1921) and from the Arctic Circle
to the equator, but most suitably at the latitude range of 30°...

Heat stress decreases photosynthesis, pollen viability, grain number and weight, and hence lowers yield and quality of wheat by variable amounts among different cultivars and genotypes. The present study was carried out to determine genetic...

Purpose – This paper aims to review the current status of wheat production, farming systems, production constraints and wheat demand-supply chain analysis; the role of international and national breeding programs and their approaches in wheat genetic...

Background
The Hessian fly response genes, Hfr-1 and Hfr-2, have been reported to be significantly induced in a Hessian fly attack. Nothing is known about the allelic variants of these two genes in susceptible (S) and resistant (R) wheat cultivars...

Heat stress affects the accumulation of starch, which is responsible for the major loss in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) yield. Clarifying the changes of starch composition and granule particles in wheat grain under heat stress are required for...

We undertook large-scale genetic analysis to determine marker-trait associations (MTAs) underlying agronomic and physiological performance in spring wheat using genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Field trials were conducted at seven sites in...

Wheat is the world‟s most widely cultivated cereal. By 2050, global demand for wheat is projected to
increase by 60%. In the CWANA region which ICARDA is tasked to serve, wheat is the basic staple
and food security crop, contributing over 60% of...

Sunn pest (Eurygaster integriceps Puton) is the most destructive insect pest of bread wheat and durum wheat in West and Central Asia and East Europe. Breeding for resistance at the vegetative stage of growth is vital in reducing the damage caused by...

Bread wheat is the major staple food in Morocco. Drought is the most important abiotic stress decreasing yield. Breeding for drought tolerance may be improved by various plant traits. In order to investigate the best selection criteria to develop...

Wheat is one of the most important staple crops of global food and nutritional security. The demand for wheat has been increasing substantially with the increasing human population pressure. Wheat genetic resources including crop wild relatives (CWRs...

Wheat is the principal staple food in most countries of the Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region, accounting for 45% of the region’s per capita calorie intake with an average wheat consumption of about 200 kg/capita/year, which is...

The Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region is a vast geographic area extending west to east from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco to the fertile irrigated Indus Valley in Pakistan; and from the highland high- rainfall areas of Ethiopia...

The HfrDrd gene has been reported to be induced specifically in the wheat's defence response to Hessian fly larvae and is not a general stress-responsive gene. The gene is located on chromosome 7DS with a homeologue on 7AS. In this study, two SNPs in...

The main goal of this study was to investigate the genetic basis of yield and grain quality traits in winter wheat genotypes using association mapping approach, and identify linked molecular markers for marker assisted selection. A total of 120 elite...

Yellow (stripe) rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis
f.sp. tritici (Pst), is a destructive disease of
wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) all over the world,
particularly in the Central and West Asia and
North Africa (CWANA) region. Host plant resistance
is...

The international winter wheat improvement program (IWWIP), an alliance between Turkey–CIMMYT–ICARDA, has distributed improved germplasm to different National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) partners through international nurseries and yield...

Appropriate experimental designs provide an efficient estimate of cultivar performance by allowing better control of experimental error. The standard approach assumes homogeneity of experimental error variances across plots. However, a given trial...

Genetic resistance is the most effective, economical and environment friendly method of managing tan spot of wheat caused by the ascomycete Pyrenophora tritici-repentis (Died.) Drechs. (anamorph Drechslera tritici-repentis, Died.). This study was...