Currently, the agricultural market offers a wide range of winter wheat varieties of domestic breeding. However, due to climate warming and the increasing frequency of arid years, it is urgent to develop varieties with wide adaptability, large productivity potential and grain quality. The purpose of the current study was to identify new genetic sources of winter common wheat with a complex of favorable gene alleles that control grain quality traits. In 2022–2023 there was studied the collection of 26 winter common wheat varieties from breeding institutions of the Rostov region and Krasnodar region using generally accepted breeding techniques. There was carried out an analysis of technological quality traits and identification of loci associated with these traits using KASP-markers developed at the Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology (Kazakhstan). The varieties developed by the Federal Rostov ARC generated the largest productivity (341 g/m2) with less accumulation of protein and gluten (14.2 and 29.5 %), and, on the contrary, the varieties of the ARC “Donskoy” and the National Grain Center named after P. P. Lukyanenko were characterized by higher percentage of protein and gluten (15.5–15.7 and 33.2–34.4 %), but lower productivity (244–276 g/m2). The varieties ‘Donskoy Mayak’, ‘Konkurent’, ‘Nakhodka’, ‘Rostovchanka 7’, ‘Duplet’ and the line ‘K 18918’ were distinguished by the best technological traits of grain (protein >15 %, gluten > 30 %, gluten index > 85 % and sedimentation ≥ 53 %) and many favorable alleles of SNP loci associated with these features. The varieties ‘Donna’, ‘Zolushka’, ‘Donskaya Lira’ exceeded the standard ‘Omskaya 4’ (368–378 g/m2) in productivity, but their allelic variants of the identified markers were lower. There have been identified the varieties ‘Donna’, ‘Zolushka’, ‘Donskaya Lira’ (Federal Rostov ARC), ‘Donskoy Mayak’, ‘Konkurent’, ‘Nakhodka’, ‘Rostovchanka 7’ (ARC “Donskoy”), ‘Duplet’, ‘line K 18918’ (“National Grain Center named after P. P. Lukyanenko”) with the maximum number of favorable alleles (10–11), associated with technological quality traits, recommended for improving winter wheat varieties in terms of grain quality.

Background. Improving the grain quality of modern spring bread wheat cultivars is a highly relevant task of breeding. To solve this problem, old and local wheat varieties (landraces) are of considerable interest. A rich collection of them is available among the plant genetic resources preserved at VIR. With this in view, the aim of this research was to identify sources of high protein, gluten, macro- and micronutrient content out of the landraces from the VIR collection for improvement of wheat grain quality through breeding.Materials and methods. Field and laboratory research were conducted in the experimental field of Omsk State Agrarian University under the conditions of the southern forest-steppe of Western Siberia in 2020–2021. Sowing was carried out on fallow on conventional sowing dates. Mineral composition in the grain of the studied landraces was analyzed at the Kurchatov Genomic Center, Novosibirsk, using atomic absorption spectrometry techniques.Results. The research results showed that landraces from different regions of Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan were characterized by high levels of protein (18.4–18.8%) and gluten (35.9–36.0%) in grain. Landraces from Kazakhstan had low Zn content (on average 38.3 mg/kg), while those from Kyrgyzstan, on the contrary, had high content of Zn (41.9 mg/kg) and Fe (55.1 mg/kg), and landraces from Tajikistan had high K content (3820 mg/kg). A positive relationship between the concentrations of Mg, Mn, Fe, and Zn was found in the grain of wheat landraces.Conclusion. Wheat landraces are of interest as genetic resources for the development of high-protein cultivars with improved nutritional value of grain for the milling and breadmaking industries.

The expansion of winter wheat sowing areas is one of the reserves for increasing grain production in the Siberian region, since the areas under winter wheat is 15–20 % larger than under spring wheat according to productivity and has great potential in using bioclimatic resources of the region. the availability of sources of economically valuable traits and the development of various initial material on their basis is of decisive importance for breeding of new winter wheat varieties and their successful introduction into production. The purpose of the current paper was to find sources of economically valuable traits from the collection of winter wheat varieties of Russian breeding in the conditions of Western Siberia. There has been studied a collection of varieties and lines of winter common wheat of Russian breeding from the institutions of the Rostov region, Stavropol, and Krasnodar Areas. Field and laboratory trials were carried out on the experimental field of the Omsk SAU in the conditions of the southern forest-steppe of Western Siberia in 2020–2022. Sowing was laid in fallow at the generally accepted sowing dates. According to the breeding estimation of the studied samples in the field seasons of 2020–2022 there was a significant correlation between winter resistance of plants and winter wheat productivity (r = 0.59), as well as an inverse correlation between productivity and gluten percentage (r = –0.36), grain ash content (r = –0.73) and sedimentation (r = –0.38). The varieties ‘Barynya’ (North Caucasian FNAC), ‘Gubernator Dona’, ‘Donna’ (Rostov ARC), ‘Don 107’, ‘Nakhodka’ (ARC “Donskoy”) and the line ‘K18918’ (RCG named after P.P. Lukyanenko), characterized by increased winter resistance (6.5–8 points) and productivity (351–384 g/m2) have been recommended as sources in breeding to improve productivity level and stability of winter wheat varieties in the conditions of Western Siberia. The varieties ‘Etnos’, ‘Anka’, ‘Gurt’, ‘Antonina’, ‘Alekseich’ and ‘Duplet’ of Krasnodar breeding with a high protein and gluten percentage (16.1–17.9 % and 35.5–39.3 %), large grain ash content and sedimentation (1.59–1.92 % and 58.0–67.0 ml) can be used as an initial material in breeding to improve the quality of winter wheat grain.

The challenges at the modern consumer market, climate change, an increase in the number of epiphytotic and arid years dictate the necessity to accelerate wheat breeding for a whole range of traits and, above all, those associated with an improvement of productivity, grain quality, resistance to diseases and drought. Marker assisted selection (MAS) allows reducing time for developing varieties with specified parameters in the conditions of a particular region. The purpose of the current work was to identify KASP-markers associated with genes of valuable traits in the collection and breeding material of wheat and effective SNP-loci for marker assisted selection (MAS) in Western Siberia. Identification of genes that control economically valuable traits using 64 KASP-markers in 2020 was performed in the LGC-Genomics laboratory (Great Britain). It was found that the platforms for genotyping SNP-loci of a large number of current varieties had a significant similarity, despite the geographical separation of varieties, which indicated the vulnerability of grain production during large-scale epiphytoties and drought. There have been found differences in the identified SNP-loci and their frequency of occurrence between current varieties, ancient wheat varieties, and breeding material based on synthetic wheat. According to the results of phenotyping of the studied samples in the field seasons of 2020–2021 there has been shown a significant effect of the root system’s parameters (genes TraesCS2D01G395500.1 and TraesCS4D01G341800.1 in chromosomes 2D and 4D) on grain size and productivity improvement. The drought resistant gene TaDreb-B1 has affected on an increase of grain content of a head and productivity. The genes GPC-B1 and TraesCS2D01G316300.1, which are responsible for nitrogen remobilization, protein and dry biomass accumulation in grain, significantly contributed to the improvement of nutritional grain value and accumulation of protein in grain. Due to marker-controlled selection in the CVT, there have been identified the varieties that significantly exceeded productivity standards, with a complex of genes that have positive effects on grain quality, resistance to diseases and drought.

Spring bread wheat is the staple crop in Western Siberia and Kazakhstan, a significant portion of which goes for export. Wheat breeding with a high level of zinc in wheat grain is the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to address zinc deficiency in the diet. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the contribution of the factors ‘location’ and ‘genotype’ in the variability of zinc content in wheat grain, and to identify the best varieties as sources of this trait for breeding. The research on screening zinc content in the wheat grain of 49 spring bread wheat varieties from the KazakhstanSiberia Spring Wheat Trial (KASIB) nursery was carried out at 4 sites in Russia (Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Tyumen, Novosibirsk) and 2 sites in Kazakhstan (Karabalyk and Shortandy) in 2017–2018. The content of zinc in wheat grain was evaluated at the Ionomic Facility of University of Nottingham in the framework of the EU project European Plant Phenotyping Network-2020. The analysis of variance showed that the main contribution into the general phenotypic variation of the studied trait, 38.7 %, was made by the factor ‘location’ due to different contents of zinc and moisture in the soil of trial sites; the effect of the factor ‘year’ was 13.5 %, and the effect of the factor ‘genotype’ was 8.0 %. The most favorable environmental conditions for accumulation of zinc in wheat grain were observed in the Omsk region. In Omsk, the average zinc content in all studied varieties was 50.4 mg/kg, with 63.7 mg/kg in the best variety ‘OmGAU 100’. These values are higher than the target values of the international program Harvest Plus. ‘Novosibirskaya 16’ (49.4 mg/kg), ‘Silach’ (48.4 mg/kg), ‘Line 4-10-16’ (47.2 mg/kg), ‘Element 22’ (46.3 mg/kg) and ‘Lutescens 248/01’ (46.0 mg/kg) were identified as being the best varieties. Significant possibilities for the production of wheat grain with high zinc content, which is in demand for the production of bread and pastry products with functional properties, were identified in the Western Siberian region.

Durum wheat (Triticum durum) is grown over an estimated 1.4 Mha in Kazakhstan and Russia with its production increasing to satisfy growing demand. Kazakhstan-Siberian Network on Spring Wheat Improvement (KASIB) was established in 2000 to exchange the germplasm and conduct cooperative multilocation testing for characterization of the germplasm. This study used the multilocation data from 80 sites x years, nine KASIB spring durum wheat trials conducted in 2003–2020 across five sites in Kazakhstan and Russia to evaluate genotype × environment interactions and identify superior germplasm. Aktobe and Samara were the driest and hottest locations with short growing seasons. Barnaul was the most favorable environment with high and stable rainfall. Omsk and Karabalyk sites were intermediate in production environment and grain yield. Analysis of weather variation between years demonstrated that all sites were subject to the same climatic events. Air temperature in May–August was negatively associated with grain yield and had a relatively higher effect compared to rainfall. Performance of germplasm was generally similar between all five sites. Breeding of cultivars widely adapted to the three subregions is not particularly realistic but targeting adaptation for two neighboring subregions would be justified. Grain yield and 1000 kernel weight were closely associated at all sites suggesting the importance of breeding for grain size. Superior germplasm was identified combining high grain yield across the five sites, variable response to environments, variable maturity range and large grain. Breeding programs at Samara and Omsk contributed the most germplasm to high-yielding performers.

An SNP analysis is performed using the iSelect90K SNP array to identify the genetic diversity of synthetic hexaploid wheat lines of Kyoto University (Japan) bred by crossing durum wheat variety Langdon (Triticum durum, 2n = 4x = 28, BBAA) with accessions of Aegilops tauschii (2n = 2x = 14, DD) of different ecological origin. The level of genomic variability is calculated by using the Emma approach (Efficient Mixed-Model Association) and genomic relationship matrix (G). The genetic diversity of the genome D of synthetic lines is greater than that of genomes A and B by 50%. The greatest genetic polymorphism is observed in the line Langdon/Ku-2105 from Pahlavi province on the southern coast of Caspian Sea and the line Langdon/Ig 131606 from Kyrgyzstan. Lines from India (Langdon/Ig 48042), Iranian provinces Sari and Babolsar (Langdon/Ku-2088, Langdon/Ku-2093, Langdon/Ku-2096), and Turkmenistan (Langdon/Ig 26387) are characterized by a lower genetic diversity of the genome D. Thus, the involvement of synthetic hexaploid wheat on the basis of Ae. tauschii accessions from the Caspian basin into hybridization will extend the genetic diversity of wheat varieties and increase the efficiency of genetic resources.