Development of doubled haploids in wheat:
Wheat is the most widely grown cereal crop in the world and one of the central pillars of global food security. Genetic improvement to develop varieties with high yield potential and resistance/tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses is the most viable and environment friendly option to enhance wheat yield in a sustainable fashion. Traditional wheat breeding techniques require six to eight generations to stabilize desired traits, or fix the desired characteristics of higher yield, quality characteristics, disease resistance or agronomic features into pure lines of wheat varieties. One of the ways to accelerate genetic progress is to save time in obtaining recombinant inbred lines ready for yield evaluation, by producing doubled haploids (DH). Doubled haploid (DH) technology is a method of using biotechnology to reduce variety development time. Doubled haploids are genetically pure inbred plants, produced in a single year. DH allow wheat breeders to stabilize desired traits in a single year, reducing the time required for new variety development by up to five years. DH can be induced through anther/pollen culture and through chromosome elimination following wide hybridization. At ICAR-IIWBR Karnal, we are focussing on wheat x maize protocol for haploid induction.