Untitled Document Breeding for Drought Tolerance in Wheat Water stress is probably the number one limitation to wheat production in Australia. That's the view of Dr Jim Morgan whose research has led to the introduction of a gene for drought tolerance in wheat. It's been used in a new variety called Mulgara, but the work can be used for the breeding of drought resistant wheat variety's for other parts of Australia. Jim Morgan from NSW Agriculture's Tamworth Centre for Crop Improvement, has spent over 20 years on this pioneering research. Clearly, the degree to which water supply and water demand limit production varies, but generally it progressively increases with decline in rainfall towards the inland margins.
Soil water holding capacity and evaporative demand are also important influences.
The importance of breeding for tolerance to water stress has long been recognised, but not effectively practised. Mulgara was significant, therefore, in that it was the first to be bred by the direct manipulation of a drought tolerance gene controlling differences in a process called osmoregulation. In this variety, the gene is combined with tolerance to the soil-borne disease, crown rot. This disease usually occurs in drier parts of the wheatbelt, and tolerance to it enhances overall adaptation where the disease is present. The technology used to breed the variety, which involved development of a test for the gene using pollen grains, was based on research conducted by Dr J Morgan at the Tamworth Centre for Crop Improvement over more than 20 years.