Crop Wild Relatives Crosses: Multi-Location Assessment in Durum Wheat, Barley, and Lentil

Crop wild relatives (CWR) are a good source of useful alleles for climate change adaptation. Here, 19 durum wheat, 24 barley, and lentil elites incorporating CWR in their pedigrees were yield tested against commercial checks across environments located Morocco, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Senegal. For each crop, the combined analysis variance showed that genotype (G), environment (E), x (G×E) effects significant most traits. A selection index combining potential (G) stability was used to identify six CWR-derived crop matching or superior best check. regression using matrix revealed grain mostly influenced by maximum daily temperature soil moisture level during growing stages. These climatic factors define five clusters (i.e., E1 E5) mega-environments. The significantly outperformed E1, E2, E4 E2 both barley lentil. germplasm also assessed several food transformation characteristics. one accession (Zeina) originating from T. araraticum mixograph score check, three accessions urartu Zn concentration. 21 H. spontaneum protein content, eight β-glucan. lentil, ten Lens orientalis check Zn, Fe Hence, results presented here strongly support use breeding programs these dryland crops, adaptation stresses value addition transformation.